New England: Towns and Theology
Puritan settlers built compact communities organized around congregations, town meetings, small farms, and literacy. New England’s economy expanded through fishing, shipbuilding, logging, trade, and farming rather than a single export crop.
The Middle Colonies: Diversity as a Way of Life
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware contained Dutch, English, German, Welsh, Scots-Irish, Quaker, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and other communities. Philadelphia became a major port, while wheat farming connected the region to Atlantic markets.
The Chesapeake: Tobacco and Plantations
Virginia and Maryland were shaped by tobacco. Plantations depended first on indentured servants and increasingly on enslaved Africans. Rivers enabled planters to ship crops directly to Britain, producing a scattered settlement pattern with few large towns.
The Lower South: Rice, Slavery, and Frontier Conflict
South Carolina and Georgia developed plantation economies based on rice, indigo, and enslaved labor. South Carolina’s rice cultivation drew on knowledge associated with West Africa. The region also contained frontier societies where Scots-Irish settlers traded and fought with Native peoples.
One Coast, Many Societies
These regions shared British imperial institutions, but daily life differed dramatically. A New England town meeting, a Philadelphia marketplace, a Virginia plantation, and a Carolina rice field represented distinct social worlds. Their eventual union was built not on uniformity, but on cooperation across deep regional differences.