The Original 13 Colonies
1. Virginia-1st permanent English settlement in America; the richest colony
Year founded: 1607 Jamestown
Why people came there: to find gold and silver and a waterway to the Pacific
1st people to come: 144 English men and boys
Goods produced: tobacco, glass, beer, wine, pottery
2. New York-the breadbasket colony because of wheat
Year founded: 1613 by Dutch, but taken over by English in 1644.
Why people came there: economic opportunities
1st people to come: Dutch, English, different countries and religions
Goods produced: wheat, corn, tobacco, timber, iron ore
3. Massachusetts Bay Colony-the self-governing colony
Year founded: 1630 on the Mayflower and other ships
Why people came there: Religious freedom
1st people to come: 1,000 Puritans from England led by John Winthrop
Goods produced: Timber, fish, furs, corn, ships
Government-theocratic government limited to church members
4. Maryland-safe haven for religious persons
Year founded: 1633 by Baron Baltimore(royal colony)
Why people came there: safe haven for Catholics, Quakers and Puritans
1st people to come: Catholics from England
Goods produced: tobacco
5. Rhode Island-absolute separation of church and state
Year founded: 1636, with land bought from Narranganset Indians
Why people came there: Banished from Massachusetts colony led by John Williams
1st people to come: a refuge for English people seeking religious freedom all different faiths.
Goods Produced: timber, apples, rum, horses, salted meats and cheese
6. Connecticut-first written constitution in the new world
Year founded: 1636, by John Hooker, preacher, land bought from Indians.
Why people came there: religious freedom
1st people to come: English Puritans from Plymouth and Mass. Colony
Goods produced: livestock, corn, lumber, clocks, coffee mills, buttons,
7. New Hampshire-The “Live Free or Die” colony
Year founded: 1629 by English sailor and merchant John Mason
Why people came there: economic opportunities
1st people to come: English to make things to sell back to England
Goods produced: fishing, beaver pelts, timber
8. Delaware-another breadbasket colony because of wheat
Year founded: 1638 by Peter Minuit,
Why people came there: religious freedom-Quakers and Presbyterians, good farmland
1st people to come: Dutch, Swedes, English(Dutch first came to harvest whales)
Goods produced: wheat, corn, tobacco, flour, paper, gunpowder
9. North Carolina-plantation state
Year founded: Roanoke-1587, then 1655 by Nathaniel Betts, a farmer
Why people came there: farm tobacco, religious freedom
1st people to come: English, Germans, Ireland, Scotland
Goods produced: tobacco, rice,
10. South Carolina-separated from N. Carolina in 1729; rich from plantations
Year founded: 1663, by King Charles II to Lord’s Proprietors
Why people came there: planters seeking wealth(relied heavily on slave labor)
1st people to come: English and French
Goods produced: cotton, rice, tobacco, indigo
11. New Jersey-breadbasket colony because of wheat
Year founded: 1664 by Lord Berkeley(royal colony)
Why people came there: religious freedom and fertile land
1st people to come: English-religious freedom, and cheap land.
Goods produced: corn, livestock, timber, textiles, shipbuilding
12. Pennsylvania-’Penn’s woods”, another breadbasket colony
Year founded: 1681 by William Penn
Why people came there: religious freedom( safe haven for Quakers)
1st people to come: English and German Quaker religious sect and Amish
Goods produced: wheat, corn, rye, hemp, iron, glassware,
13. Georgia-the last colony, named after King George
Year founded: 1732 by James Ogelthorpe as a buffer between England and Florida
Why people came there: chance to start over from debt in England
1st people to come: debtors from England
Goods produced: rice, indigo, tobacco, lumber