CHAPTER 3.2

New England Colonies

Economy of New England

Based on fishing, lumber, and industry.

Soil and climate not good for cash crops, like in the South. The people are small plot farmers practicing subsistence farming.

Main crop is corn.

New England Towns

Puritans believed in church covenants –where groups of people agree to worship together.

This idea of forming congregations for worship, also played into forming towns for groups of people.

Land was given to groups of Puritans, not individuals, and the leaders (town proprietors) decided how the land was settled and how the group was governed.

New England Town Meetings

These townspeople met and discussed their issues and problems.

The free men elected the town’s leaders and deputies for the

General Court. Anyone could go and express their

opinion in the meeting, but only landowners could vote.

Eventually the town meetings were used to pass laws for their town – Direct Democracy.

New England Town Meetings

The Town Meetings produced colonists who governed for themselves, and when England tried to make the colonists follow the rules of England instead – there would be big problems, the American Revolution.

The Town Meetings produced a tradition of democracy in America.

Puritans and “Holy Watching”

Puritans lived near the Meeting House (church) – so there would be no excuse for missing.

The sermons, worship, and religious lectures kept the Puritans devout to their strict moral code.

No cards, dice, mixed dancing, or theatre acting. They kept themselves and their neighbors

accountable to the rules by practicing “Holy Watching”

“Holy Watching”

Watching over your neighbors was “the Lord’s work”.

“Holy Watching” kept these Puritans from breaking the rules, and if they did break the rules – they would be sure to be punished .

England is Walmart New England had few goods that

England needed besides lumber and ships, but England had a lot of goods New England needed.

New England had good ships and good harbors, so many New Englanders became merchants.

Cities and towns formed along the coasts and harbors to get these English goods and be homes for merchants and sailors.

Triangular Trade

Well, if England doesn’t want our goods, let’s find someone who does.

Caribbean plantations wanted New England’s lumber, fish, and meat.

Caribbean planters would trade raw sugar or give them bills of exchange – credit slips that acted like money to get goods from England.

Triangular Trade

Page 96

Significance of Triangular Trade

Some of these merchants became wealthy and built factories.

Some of these factories made rum, which led to another triangular trade.

New England would trade rum to Britain for goods, and Britain would get slaves from Africa in exchange for rum.

It also led to more trading with the Southern Colonies, getting rice, indigo, and tobacco while giving the Southern Colonies fish, rum, and grain.

Triangular Trade

The Salem Witch Trials In Salem, Massachusetts, 20 people

were executed for being witches. The Salem Witch Trials began after a

few teenage girls accused an African servant named Tituba of being a witch.

Tituba confesses and affirms that two others suspected of witchcraft are indeed witches.

19 of the accused were hanged, 1 was pressed to death, and some died in prison.

Why Confess to Being a Witch?

Chapter 3.2, Continued

The

Middle

Colonies

Wheat Wheat was the main cash crop for

the Middle Colonies. Europe experienced a population

explosion because of a warmer climate and a decline in diseases.

More people = more demand for food, like wheat.

More people = more immigrants to America

Wheat made the middle colonies wealthy and an attractive place to settle as an immigrant.

Entrepreneurs in the Middle Colonies

Entrepreneurs-businesspeople who invest money into land, equipment, and supplies so as to sell to immigrants for a profit.

Owned large farms and other businesses if they became wealthy.

Capitalists in the Middle Colonies

Wheat made several people wealthier. Capitalists used that money to invest in

new businesses.