APUSH coloines

New England Colonies

  • Massachusetts: Settled by Puritans in 1630 for religious reasons; featured a mixed economy of small farms, fishing, and trade; used town meetings for local democracy.

  • Rhode Island: Founded by Roger Williams after banishment from Massachusetts; known for complete religious tolerance and separation of church and state

  • Connecticut: Founded by Thomas Hooker; established the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (an early written constitution); focused on mixed farming and trade.

  • New Hampshire: Originally a fishing and trading outpost; separated from Massachusetts as a royal colony in 1679.

Middle Colonies

  • Pennsylvania: Founded by William Penn as a Quaker "Holy Experiment"; practiced religious freedom and fair treatment of Native Americans.

  • New York: Originally Dutch New Netherland before English takeover in 1664; featured a major port city (NYC) and a diverse trading economy.

  • New Jersey: Split into East and West Jersey before reuniting as a royal colony; ethnically and religiously diverse with fertile land for farming.

  • Delaware: Settled first by Swedish and Dutch traders; later controlled by Pennsylvania before becoming a separate colony.

Southern (and Chesapeake) Colonies

  • Virginia: Founded in 1607 at Jamestown for profit; relied on tobacco and created the House of Burgesses (first representative assembly); shifted from indentured servants to enslaved labor after Bacon’s Rebellion.

  • Maryland: Founded by Lord Baltimore as a safe haven for Catholics; passed the Act of Toleration (protecting Christian worship); ran on a tobacco-plantation economy.

  • North Carolina: Settled largely by small-scale tobacco farmers and runaway servants from Virginia; grew into a plantation-style economy in the south.

  • South Carolina: Modeled after the sugar colonies of the West Indies; relied on slave labor to grow rice and indigo cash crops; had a majority-enslaved population early on.

  • Georgia: Founded in 1732 by James Oglethorpe as a buffer zone against Spanish Florida and a refuge for debtors; initially banned slavery and alcohol before turning into a rice plantation colony.