Chapter Four - The Colonies Develop There are four main points
to Chapter Four: I.Financial Implications How did money impact the
development of the colonies? II.Development of Slave Industry Why
did the slave industry develop differently in the colonies?
III.Growth of Cities What was the impact of urban growth in the
colonies? IV.Immigration How did the migration of the various
European people in the colonies impact the culture?
Slide 3
What does Urban Growth mean? An urban area is characterized by
a large population in a small area. The large harbors on the east
coast became the primary places where people first landed when they
immigrated from Europe. What options did these people have and
where could they go? The New England area had a strong Puritan
community that had little religious tolerance and demanded the
community believe as they did. The South as made up of large
plantations. There was not much land available and it was very
labor intensive to work. The choice that new immigrants had was to
either stay in the cities or move to the western frontier. Many
people stayed in the cities and looked for work. This is where we
can see tremendous urban growth in such cities as New York,
Philadelphia and Baltimore. The people that made up these cities
were an eclectic blend of intelligent and skillful businessmen.
Therefore it was in the cities that the business side of the
colonies developed.
Slide 4
The Evolution of the Major Colonial Cities So, how did these
cities become such a force in the colonies? Keep in mind that the
development of the early colonies was impacted by what was going on
in England (Europe) at this time period. There was political
turmoil with the various and ongoing religious wars over authority.
There was additional economic turmoil between the class systems in
England. As such, the Americas and all it offered provided England
with a means to maintain the wealth, to maintain the power and to
remain the dominant world force. They controlled the money and they
controlled the power.
Slide 5
The colonies provided a new and exciting era for England. They
had this great opportunity to expand their kingdom with the
physical land in America. The Americas therefore, was seen as an
extension of England. They were the children (so to speak) sent out
to represent their family. They were provided support and
protection and the family was expecting them to make good in the
return investment. The colonist on the other hand did not believe
the same as their long lost relatives in the Old Country. Time had
passed by and many of the people now living in the Americas had
been born in the colonies. They certainly still had connections in
England and understood themselves as British citizens with full
rights (protection). What was the mindset of the colonists
Slide 6
It was in the cities that a new brand of leadership began to
emerge. As businesses began to develop in the cities, so did a new
class of wealthy educated men who were very opinionated about their
new identity. These colonists understood themselves as a new type
of English citizen. They were adventuresome, hardworking, outspoken
and brash about their accomplishments in the New World. They wanted
to be heard and they wanted a say in their governing rules. They
realized that communication and edicts from England were slow in
coming. By the time the ruling power in England (King and
Parliament) reacted to a situation and responded, many months had
passed by and the situation was irrelevant. With this new type of
brash freedom instilled in the culture and daily lifestyle of the
colonist a new and different class of people began to evolve a
middle class! The emergence of the middle class
Slide 7
The thirteen colonies had this unique connection with each
other through their English roots. However, keep in mind that these
colonies still developed differently through their own personal
beliefs, their surrounding environment and the opportunities where
they lived. Each colonial region had its own distinct economy The
South developed an economy based on the large plantations and
slavery. The north developed an economy on lumber, fishing and the
shipping industry. The Middle colonies was a blend of the North and
the South, economically, geographically and ethically. However, the
middle colonies had these large urban areas that developed called
cities. The thirteen colonies
Slide 8
Colonial Cities of the Middle Colonies
Slide 9
New York City An Italian, Giovanni da Verrazano discovered New
York Harbor in 1524. In 1609 an Englishman, Henry Hudson, sailed up
the Hudson River. Then in 1624 the Dutch founded the first
permanent trading post The Dutch built a little town on the
southern tip of Manhattan Island. It was called New Amsterdam and
it flourished by selling skins. In 1653 a wall was built across
Manhattan Island to protect the little town of New Amsterdam. The
street next to it was called Wall Street. In 1639 a Swede called
Jonas Bronck settled in the Bronx, which is named after him. A
settlement was founded at Flushing in 1645. In 1664 an English
fleet arrived. Fearing the English would sack the colony the Dutch
surrendered. It was renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York,
brother of King Charles II. By 1700 New York had a population of
almost 5,000 and it continued to grow rapidly. By 1776 the
population was about 25,000. In 1800 New York City had about 60,000
inhabitants.
Slide 10
Philadelphia The Philadelphia region was first settled by
Swedes in the first half of the seventeenth century. It was not
until 1682 that the Englishman William Penn, having received a land
grant from King Charles II, founded his settlement between the
Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, north of the existing Swedish
settlement. Penn planned a town with the promise of religious
freedom. By the eighteenth century, thanks to its fine port and
good agricultural land, Philadelphia had become the foremost city
in the 13 British colonies. Philadelphians actively participated in
the debate that preceded the adoption of the Declaration of
Independence and were heavily involved in the Revolutionary War
(17751783), during which their city was occupied by British troops.
The members of the Continental Congress fled to Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, taking the Liberty Bell with them. After the war,
Philadelphia was the site of the Constitutional Convention, at
which the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787, and the city
served as the capital of the new country in the 1790s before the
completion of Washington, D.C.
Slide 11
Baltimore In 1632, England's King Charles I gave George Calvert
(Lord Baltimore) a vast area in colonial America that became
Baltimore County in 1659. During the 1660s the Maryland General
Assembly appointed commissioners who granted land patents and
development privileges to enterprising colonists. Although the
Piscataway and Susquehannock tribes originally lived in neighboring
regions, tribal competition and the onslaught of colonial diseases
dissipated all but a few hundred of the Native Americans in
Maryland by 1700. The sandy plains bordering the Chesapeake Bay
were ideal for growing tobacco, and a tobacco-based economy quickly
developed in pre-Revolutionary Maryland. An area of 550 acres,
formerly known as "Cole's Harbor," was sold to Baltimore landowners
Daniel and Charles Carroll in 1696; they sold a parcel of this land
in one-acre lots for development. These lots became Baltimore Town,
which grew quickly in both size and trade. By 1742 regular tobacco
shipments were leaving Baltimore harbor for Europe.