Thirtieth Week Seventh Grade History Essay

          This week I learned about a very well known and important topic, the Thirteen Colonies. The Thirteen Colonies were a series of British settlements that developed along the east coast of North America from 1607 to 1733. These colonies eventually became thirteen states. More states started to sprout up going west, which later became the United States of America.

          The first colony was Virginia, which started with Jamestown. It was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1607. It was named after the virgin Queen Elizabeth. Virginia became a flourishing colony, especially when it began farming and selling tobacco to England.

          The second of the Thirteen Colonies was Massachusetts. The name “Massachusetts” came from the Native American tribe, Massachusett, who lived on the land before. The word means “great hill”, or “a range of hills”. Massachusetts was occupied mostly by Puritans, which means they had Puritan leaders and governors. However, the Puritans who lived there allowed other religions in the colony as well.

          Thirdly, there was New Hampshire. The colony was founded in 1623. New Hampshire was involved in the timber trade with England, which was very profitable. Unfortunately, England caused problems with the new colony because it kept the best timber for the ship mass. This meant that England kept all of its best wood and New Hampshire had to give all its best timber to England. Despite this one-sided problem, the colony was doing well.

          The fourth colony was the Province of Maryland. Maryland was established by Lord Baltimore in 1632. It was originally founded to protect Catholics from persecution in England and the Bishop’s War. Maryland also farmed tobacco and traded it with England. The colony needed cheap and fast labor, so Maryland started using servants to farm the field, which led to slaves.

          Next, there was the Connecticut colony. Another name for this colony was the River Colony. As you can see, this was probably because of all the rivers in the colony. Unfortunately, all the rivers are not the only thing remembered about the colony. There was a war between the settlers and the Native Americans that was fought on Connecticut’s soil. This war was called the Pequot War.

          There was also the colony of Rhode Island. This colony was founded when Anne Hutchison was banned from Massachusetts for her religious teachings. She founded Rhode Island, and eventually expanded it to include Providence Plantation. Providence Plantation was established by a man named Roger Williams, who was also banned from Massachusetts for his religious teachings.

          Delaware was the sixth colony established. However, it was originally governed and owned by the Province of Pennsylvania. After earning its freedom, the Dutch took over Delaware. Thankfully, a man named Sir Robert Carr was sent by England to destroy the Dutch claims on the colony, but traveling along the Delaware River. He did this and it worked, allowing Delaware to be its own colony.

          After Delaware was the colony of Carolina. The Province of Carolina was given to eight Lord Proprietors by Charles II as a thank you gift for helping him restore the English throne. Charles II was hoping that the development of Carolina would keep the Spaniards in Florida from advancing north. The capitol of Carolina was Charles Towne, as we know it today, named after Charles. It became the economic and cultural center of the south. Carolina eventually split into two colonies, North Carolina and South Carolina, because even though they were one colony, the north and south sections had different beliefs and acted very differently.

          The next colony was New Jersey. Even though the Dutch owned New Jersey, England believed that it was supposed to have the colony. This was because it was established by John Cabot, who was English. Eventually, England did get in control of the colony. Originally, the colony was split into East and West Jersey. However, they were later unified into one colony in 1703. New Jersey had some struggles though, especially with the New York-New Jersey Line War. This war began because of some disagreements and tension between the two.

          Thankfully, it was all settled by the king, who sent people to resolve the war and redraw the boundary line permanently.

          Now that I’ve mentioned it, I will talk about New York, which was settled shortly after New Jersey. It was originally called New Amsterdam, before it was taken over by the British from the Dutch, who owned it before. The colony supported itself by the fur trade and agriculture. New York’s constitution gave its people more rights than any other colony.

          After New York was the colony of Pennsylvania. It was established by William Penn in 1681. Pennsylvania was named after William’s father, and the word “Pennsylvania actually means “Penn’s Woods”. They even managed to keep the government in Pennsylvania in the Penn family many years afterward. Unlike some of the other colonies, Pennsylvania had friendly relations with the Native Americans living there before. They never had any wars, and even bought the land from the Indians instead of just taking it.

          Finally, I will talk about the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established: Georgia. Georgia was founded in 1732 by a man named General James Oglethorpe. It was designed to be a refuge for people in debt. In other words, Georgia was a place for people to come and start their lives over if they messed them up in England. They could choose out of either Georgia, or prison. As good as this new colony sounded, Oglethorpe’s strict laws got Georgia off to a slow start. A few of these laws said that there was to be no alcohol, no slavery, and no large land plots. However, the colony started to thrive when Oglethorpe lifted some of these laws.

          As you can see, the Thirteen Colonies are a very interesting topic to learn. The Thirteen Colonies were thirteen British settlements along the east coast of North America, established from 1607 to 1733. In chronological order, they are Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Eventually, these colonies became thirteen states, which spread to make the United States of America, the beautiful country we know today.