The Earliest Americans and the Age of Exploration

In North America, the English had the most populous colonies, though they were confined to the Atlantic coast. Neighboring New France, in what is now Canada, had just 25,000 settlers in 1720, while the English colonies had an estimated 466,000 people that same year.

The colonies did not all develop at the same time or in the same way. Many began as the creation of private companies and were later brought under the control of the British monarchy. Individuals came to the colonies for the prospect of land, to find religious freedom, or to escape poverty back in England.

While each colony was unique, they can be classified into three groups: New England, Middle, and Southern.

New England: These colonies were Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Settlement in New England began because of the Puritans, whose rules were very strict but who also encouraged education for all of the colonists. Although the land in this region could be difficult to farm, the fisheries nearby were rich, and the dense forests provided for good lumber that could be sold back to England. Boston became the major city of the region, and the region soon depended on trade and industry, particularly shipbuilding. Although slavery existed in the New England colonies, it became less important by the mid-eighteenth century.

Middle: These colonies were New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Because the land was well suited to agriculture, it attracted settlers who grew foodstuffs. The Dutch influence in New York and elsewhere guaranteed religious toleration, which meant that settlers in this region came from all over Europe. The two largest cities were New York and Philadelphia.

Southern: The Southern colonies consisted of Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, and Carolina, which was later split into North and South Carolina. These regions were the most rural and underpopulated, which was part of the reason that English planters encouraged the African slave trade as a way to keep a steady labor pool. The economy in these colonies was based on the cultivation of tobacco, indigo, and rice, which were labor-intensive crops that increased demand for enslaved Africans.