Ellis Island
Prepare and perform a play about people who settled in a new area. Show what daily life was like in one of the colonies.
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What country or countries did your family or your ancestors emigrate from? What were the reasons for settling in a new country? How has their decision to settle in a new land affected your life? Write about what your life might be like today if your family had decided not to settle in a new country. |
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The Southern ColoniesVirginia and MarylandVirginia and Maryland needed a large number of people to work in the plantation fields. Indentured servants who survived their service were given "freedom dues." The Carolinas and GeorgiaNot all the people of the Carolinas and Georgia came of their own free will. Africans were taken by force from their homeland to be enslaved in America. Living in the Southern ColoniesMost Southern colonists lived on small farms. The wealthy owners of plantations hired or enslaved workers to take care of their fields. The New England ColoniesPlymouth ColonyA Native American named Squanto showed the Pilgrims how to plant crops, fish, and hunt game. After months of near starvation, the Pilgrims were able to eat better. The Puritans Settle Massachusetts BayThe Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony along the Charles River. They named their first settlement Boston. Connecticut and Rhode IslandAt first, Native Americans helped the colonists. But conflicts soon flared, such as the bloody Pequot War. Living in New EnglandIn the 1600s and 1700s, witchcraft was a serious crime. In 1692, Puritans hanged 19 people for witchcraft in Salem. The Middle ColoniesNew York and New JerseyIn 1626, the Dutch bought Manhattan Island from a group of Native Americans. The Dutch bought the land from the wrong Native American tribe. Scroll down the timeline to learn about the history of Manhattan. Pennsylvania and DelawareWilliam Penn called his Pennsylvania colony a Holy Experiment because people there could worship freely. Pennsylvania attracted colonists fleeing Europe for religious or political reasons. Living in the Middle ColoniesFarmers in the Middle colonies were so prosperous that they sold their extra crops of grain to the New England and Southern colonies. People began to call the Middle colonies the "Breadbasket of the colonies." Life in the 13 ColoniesConflicts with Native AmericansFighting broke out when colonists settled on land the Native Americans thought of as their own. The Powhatan Wars in Virginia lasted for almost 40 years. Slavery in the ColoniesBy the mid-1770s, the slave trade had brought 250,000 Africans over to America. Many Africans did not survive the brutal trip across the ocean. The Triangular TradeOn the first leg of the voyage, ships carried manufactured goods such as weapons and cloth to trade for African captives. The deadly Middle Passage brought the enslaved Africans to the West Indies to be traded for molasses, which was shipped to the Northern Colonies for the third leg of the triangle. |
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Print the Research Roadmap. Use it to take notes and hand it in to your teacher when you make your presentation.
Today's Old Order Mennonites and Amish do not believe in using many modern conveniences. They live as their ancestors did without cars, television, or electricity in their homes!