Video transcript
- [Instructor] Overthe course of the 1600s the English continued to settle along the eastern seaboard of North America. Now we've already talked aboutthe settlements at Virginia and those of Massachusetts and a little bit about thesettlement of New York, which was first founded by the Dutch as New Amsterdam in 1624. In this video I want to talk a little bit more about the Middle Colonies. These colonies that were here kind of on the center of the eastern seaboard, south of Massachusetts and north of the Southern Colonies of Virginia, particularly Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and this little, tiny purplecolony right here, Delaware. Now what's unique aboutthe Middle Colonies compared to the northernor southern colonies is not just that they were kind of in a central location, but also that they wereproprietary colonies, which means that they were the property of individual owners. So unlike Jamestown, for example, which was founded by acompany, the Virginia Company, the colony of Pennsylvaniawas founded by one man, William Penn, who was granted his landby the king of England in exchange for a debt that the king had owed his father. So in the early years ofthese proprietary colonies, they were kind of the playgrounds of the people who owned them. They could set their ownrules for the most part. And that freedom resulted in colonies that were more ethnically diverse and more religiously tolerant than their neighborsto the north or south. So let's look at thecolony of Pennsylvania as an example. So Pennsylvania wasfounded by William Penn, and Penn was a English aristocrat from a very good family who'd converted to the Quaker religion. Although the real name for Quakers was the Religious Society of Friends, they got the nickname Quaker because they seemed to quake when theywere in religious ecstasy. Like the Puritans, Quakers faced religious persecution in Englandbecause they did not follow the Church of England, which was a form ofrebellion against the king who was the head of the Church of England. But in addition to theQuakers' strange ideas about religion, they alsohad some strange ideas for the time period about social status. Quakers believed that all people had the light of God inthem and therefore were more or less equal in stature. So for example, womencould preach in church, as you see in this image right here. So when William Pennconverted to the Quaker faith, Penn had a really rough time of it. So he came upon an idea that perhaps he could make a haven for Quakers and for religious dissenters more broadly in the New World. So he negotiated with the king who owed his father a debt, and in exchange for this debt, the king granted Pennland in North America, which was named Pennsylvania, sylvania being Latin for forest. So kind of Penn's forest, Penn's woods. And Penn decided to extendhis religious tolerance not just to Quakers, butreally to all people. All Protestants, no matter what their particular sect, could have citizenship, run for office, vote, and Catholics and even Jews were welcome in Pennsylvania, although they did not have the right to vote or hold office. This was incrediblyradical for the time period when it was common for nations to have a state religion and to persecute those who didn't follow that religion. Penn advertised for his new colony and particularly hopedthat industrious people, people with skills like carpentry or blacksmithing, wouldcome to Pennsylvania and make it a prosperous colony. And they did. The ease of getting citizenship, the religious tolerance, and the plentiful andcheap land of Pennsylvania drew many settlers to the colony such that its principalcity, Philadelphia, was the largest city in North America before the Revolution, with about 40,000 inhabitants. Because Quakers were pacifists, that is they did notbelieve in violence or war, they even lived peacefullywith Native Americans in the early years ofPennsylvania settlement. But as more immigrants of different faiths came to Pennsylvaniaand began pushing west, that short era of peacefulco-habitation ended. Likewise, because Quakers believed in the innate equality of all human beings, they were not fond of slavery. The environment in the Middle Colonies was not so cold as it was in the north, not so hot as it was in the south, it was kind of middling. And so it was a verygood place for farming, particularly cereal crops like wheat. You can see this print here shows wheat growing in this field. And just as the name suggests, Pennsylvania had a lot of wood, so it was also a good place for timber. And the excellent ports at Philadelphia and New York City made it an excellent place for trade. Because it was such agood place to grow food, the Middle Colonies got the nickname the Breadbasket Colonies. And the patterns of landownership reflect this. Since the soil was good, your average farmer owned more land than a New England farmer, but not as much as a Virginia farmer who would've had manyacres to grow tobacco. So much like the environment, the farms in the Middle Colonies were middling in size. In fact, if I had toput the Middle Colonies on a spectrum, in many places I'd putthem right in the middle when it came to an economy that was more agrarian. The Middle Colonies hada little bit of both, unlike the Chesapeakeand southern economies which were strongly agrarian. And unlike the New England colonies who began manufacturing quite early. Likewise, when it comesto the distribution of wealth in the Middle Colonies, once again I'd put the Middle Colonies right here in the center. There were plenty of middling farmers, many indentured servants, and a handful of peoplewho became quite wealthy, unlike the Chesapeake where there were a handful of extremely wealthy landowners while most people lived at the bottom of the social scale, and unlike New England where small farming led to a fairly even middle class. So the Middle Colonies had a mixed economy of industry and farming, and a fairly balanced class structure with people at many different levels, putting them smack dab in the middle. But for all of the waysthat the Middle Colonies were middling, there were also a few ways that they were quite extraordinary. Well, we've already mentioned that the Middle Colonies had alevel of religious freedom that was virtually unmatched anywhere else in the world. For example, Pennsylvaniaextended citizenship to all Protestants and tolerated Catholics and Jews. In comparison, the Chesapeakeand Southern Colonies required citizens to belongto the Anglican faith, the Church of England, and religious tolerancefor the Catholic Church in Maryland and New Englanderswere extremely strict. For example, in Massachusetts Bay, anyone who was not Puritan was expelled or executed. Although there is of course the exception of Rhode Island, wherereligious dissenters could find safe haven. The other extraordinary aspect of these middle colonies was just the sheer amount of ethnic diversity there was. By the time of the American Revolution, less than half, only about 49% of inhabitants were from England or had an English background. The rest were German, French, Dutch, Scotch-Irish. And just a few Africans as there was relatively little slavery. In comparison, New England was perhaps the least diverse of the colonies. Most people were English, with a handful ofremaining Native Americans and Africans. And the Chesapeake and Southern Colonies were largely African and English, with again just a few Native Americans. The people of the Middle Colonies spoke many languages, practiced many faiths, and had a strong possibilityof upward mobility economically since farms and businesses prospered and the Middle Colonies grew rapidly in population.
