Middle
Colonies were a part of the original Thirteen Colonies that would later
become The United States of America. The region was originally called
New Netherlands, which was later renamed to the Middle Colonies. The
area consisted of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware.
Today, these areas are also called the Mid-Atlantic States.
The climate in the colonies was relatively hot, not as cold as New
England, allowing for a longer growing season, but not as hot as the
Southern Colonies, which helped stop the spread of disease.
The Middle Colonies were the most ethnically and religiously diverse of
the thirteen original colonies because of the influence of their Polish,
English, Dutch, French and German origins. This influence included
tolerance in religion, and resulted in New Netherland's success as the
commercial center of the eastern North American colonies. This was
evidence by the fact that they had more agriculture than the New England
colonies. The Middle Colonies were also known as the "bread basket" of
the thirteen colonies because of their large grain export. It was also
the mid-Atlantic colonies that expanded into other areas of commerce
before the other colonies at the time.
There were many brick buildings in the Middle Colony due to the amount
of clay along the riverbanks. The Dutch built houses that were usually
two-and-a-half to three stories high with steep roofs. The Germans were
the last in the colonies to use stoves rather than fireplaces to heat
their homes. Many streets were paved, and many people had their shops
and homes in the same building. The wealthy would have their portraits
painted. Homes in the country could be made of logs and chinked with
moss or mud.
Pioneer families planted crops such as maize, wheat, rye, potatoes,
peas, and flax. Flax was used to make cloth; corn was one of the main
foods eaten in the colonies. Meat could come from wild animals. Many
poorer families ate a form of pudding called cornmeal mush every day of
the year. Johnny cake, bread made with cornmeal, was also popular.
Vegetables and meat were used to make soups and stews. Pies were made
from gathered raspberries, strawberries, and cherries. Since water was
sometimes impure, all members of the family drank milk and whiskey,
which was made out of corn, rye, wheat, and barley. The whiskey was
often mixed with spices, milk, and sugar which many people thought
improved the taste. Agriculture was not the only profitable way to make a
living. The Middle Colonies were full of fish, oysters and lobsters. In
the woods, boar was the game of choice. Wild turkeys roamed everywhere
and were ripe for the picking.
Originally, clothing in the Middle Colonies for the most part resembled
the Dutch form of dress from the south. Quakers wore neat and simple
clothing as their religion taught them. Many clothes were homemade on
the frontier. Flax produced linen and deerskin was used to make
breeches, shirts, jackets, and moccasins. Forest products were used to
make a dye. Yellow came from butternut tree bark; red came from the
roots of the madder herb; blue was extracted from the flowers of indigo
plants; brown came from the hulls of black walnuts.
