answer:
traditionally, when we tell the story of “colonial america,” we are talking about the english colonies along the eastern seaboard. that story is incomplete–by the time englishmen had begun to establish colonies in earnest, there were plenty of french, spanish, dutch and even russian colonial outposts on the american continent–but the story of those 13 colonies (new hampshire, massachusetts, connecticut, rhode island, new york, new jersey, pennsylvania, delaware, maryland, virginia, north carolina, south carolina and georgia) is an important one. it was those colonies that came together to form the united states.
the 13 colonies
the original 13 colonies of north america in 1776, at the united states declaration of independence.
culture club/getty images
english colonial expansion
sixteenth-century england was a tumultuous place. because they could make more money from selling wool than from selling food, many of the nation’s landowners were converting farmers’ fields into pastures for sheep. this led to a food shortage; at the same time, many agricultural workers lost their jobs.
did you know? virginia dare, the first american-born child of english parents, was born in roanoke in 1587.
the 16th century was also the age of mercantilism, an extremely competitive economic philosophy that pushed european nations to acquire as many colonies as they could. as a result, for the most part, the english colonies in north america were business ventures. they provided an outlet for england’s surplus population and (in some cases) more religious freedom than england did, but their primary purpose was to make money for their sponsors.
the tobacco colonies
in 1606, king james i divided the atlantic seaboard in two, giving the southern half to the london company (later the virginia company) and the northern half to the plymouth company. the first english settlement in north america had actually been established some 20 years before, in 1587, when a group of colonists (91 men, 17 women and nine children) led by sir walter raleigh settled on the island of roanoke. mysteriously, by 1590 the roanoke colony had vanished entirely. historians still do not know what became of its inhabitants.
in 1606, just a few months after james i issued its charter, the london company sent 144 men to virginia on three ships: the godspeed, the discovery and the susan constant. they reached the chesapeake bay in the spring of 1607 and headed about 60 miles up the james river, where they built a settlement they called jamestown. the jamestown colonists had a rough time of it: they were so busy looking for gold and other exportable resources that they could barely feed themselves. it was not until 1616, when virginia’s settlers learned how to grow tobacco, that it seemed the colony might survive. the first african slaves arrived in virginia in 1619.
in 1632, the english crown granted about 12 million acres of land at the top of the chesapeake bay to cecilius calvert, the second lord baltimore. this colony, named maryland after the queen, was similar to virginia in many ways. its landowners produced tobacco on large plantations that depended on the labor of indentured servants and (later) african slaves.
but unlike virginia’s founders, lord baltimore was a catholic, and he hoped that his colony would be a refuge for his persecuted coreligionists. maryland became known for its policy of religious toleration for all.
the new england colonies
the first english emigrants to what would become the new england colonies were a small group of puritan separatists, later called the pilgrims, who arrived in plymouth in 1620 to found plymouth colony. ten years later, a wealthy syndicate known as the massachusetts bay company sent a much larger (and more liberal) group of puritans to establish another massachusetts settlement. with the of local natives, the colonists soon got the hang of farming, fishing and hunting, and massachusetts prospered.
