The Thirteen Colonies

The thirteen colonies were a group of British settlements between 1607, and 1733. They were set up on the Atlantic coast of north America, and the first of the colonies was Virginia. Virginia started with the settlement of Jamestown in the year of 1607, and it was the capital of Virginia, although, it was later renamed Williamsburg in 1699. The colony of Virginia had its charter revoked by James I king of England, who soon made it become a crown colony, the colony was later given the nickname “The Old Dominion” because it had remained loyal to the crown even during the Commonwealth of England which was a time of disruption, and most colonies did not remain loyal to it. Individual sections of the colony of Virginia, over time, came to form Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Kentucky.

            The next colony was the colony of Massachusetts. Massachusetts began when the Plymouth colony and Massachusetts Bay colony combined to form Massachusetts. This colony was mostly lead by Puritans, but other religions were tolerated. A little while after they arrived, the Pequot War occurred in 1636 between the Indians and the settlers, but not long after that, King Philips war began in 1675. When William and Mary who were joint monarchs in England, issued a new charter the colony became the Province of Massachusetts.

            New Hampshire was the third colony to be established, it began when William and Mary were working on getting a charter, which meant they were trying to get permission to go and set up a settlement. They were trying to get a charter to go to Massachusetts, and decided to commission New Hampshire as well. It was placed between two rivers, which was a common thing, because it provided drinking water, washing, water, and the ability to go fishing. The colony was not into the independence movement at first, but after a while the idea became popular even there. They had a good timber selling business, but there was trouble after England tried to take the finest pieces for the masts of its ships, they were entitled to do this because the colony was chartered and that gave special rights to resources as something of a payment to England.

            Maryland was an English colony, it was established by Lord Baltimore in the year of 1632. At first, the colony was accepting of other religions, but before long the Protestants overwhelmed the Catholics of the settlement. Maryland farmed tobacco and they sold it back to Europe, the best farms were around Chesapeake Bay, and the people of the land needed laborers to help in the work so they resorted to the use of slaves.

            Connecticut came four years after the colony of Maryland and was founded by a man who was a Puritan minister. After the settlers arrived they fought the Pequot war, between the Native Americans and the settlers, the battles were mostly fought on Connecticut ground, and the settlers won.

            Rhode Island, founded in 1636 by Roger Williams and Anne Hutchison who were settlers in Massachusetts before having been banished. When they arrived each founded their own little colony but they were later combined in 1663. For the most part Rode Island was religiously tolerant to most peoples, the only exceptions were the Jews and the Quakers.

Delaware was at first a part of Pennsylvania the province, it was under its governance being a colony. It was founded in 1664 by a man named Sir Robert Carr. He banished the Dutch from the area and named it an English colony.

North Carolina was given as a gift by Charles I to his attorney general, but it was later reissued and granted to eight Lord Proprietors who had been helping with King James’s restoration. Charles had hoped that this colony would keep the Spaniards from moving North from Florida. North and South Carolina were ruled very differently, and in the year 1712 they separated and in 1729 they were royal colonies, so they count as two separate colonies. The first city to be established was Charlestown in 1663, it was a cultural center at the time, the Carolinas were named after Charles II.

Around 1610, part of the New World was Dutch territory, and in the Anglo-Dutch War, Fort Amsterdam was taken by the English and the Netherlands claims, the colony of New Jersey was founded out of this. The English claimed that they had rights to the land because John Cabot was the one who originally discovered it. There was a dispute with New York and New Jersey over their boundary lines, these problems were solved when the king decided where the boundary lines would go permanently in the year 1769.

New York the province, was surrounded by the Dutch in the time of 1664. It got its name because of the Duke of York, when England controlled it directly. The colony did much development on the Hudson River and they were also able to support themselves with the fur trade. The colonists of New York received more rights than any other Colonies would give. Only ten of the twelve counties that had their government organized in 1683 still exist today.

Pennsylvania was established by a man named William Penn in the year of 1681. The government of Pennsylvania was organized with a proprietor, a large council, and of course a governor. Pennsylvania was tolerant of most religions, therefore the Amish people advanced using the rich and fertile soil to grow food. The Quakers respected the Indians, never waging war with them, and even bought land from them.

Finally, the colony of Georgia was established in 1732 and was farther to the south than any other colony. Its purpose was to be a refuge for people in dept or with criminal past or other problems, it was organized by a man named General James Oglethorpe. The first capital of Georgia was Savannah, the same place were they first landed.

The thirteen colonies were the beginning of America. They all had different ideas and purposes, and eventually they united to form states, and through that the United States of America was established, but it would not have been possible without those first thirteen colonies.

Information gathered from the Ron Paul curriculum 7^th grade history class