1752 Calendar Change Colonial Records & Topics LibGuides Home At Connecticut State Library

This simplified view of salvation raised questions about the status of who was “elect,” which raised awkward questions about the role of the community and its leaders. One dissenter,Roger Williams, was a highly educated man who held a strong belief in an individual’s freedom of worship. Even by Plymouth’s standards, Williams was a radical Separatist, who came to be known as the purest of Puritans. He was troubled by the idea that the Puritans had not made a clean break from the corrupt Church of England. As with any group, there were differences of opinion, but the leaders of the colony made sure that such differences did not stray too far from established ideals.

The Trail begins at Boston Common, a bright urban park, and a brick path guides walkers the entire way. Sites on the Trail include the Park Street Church, Granary Burying Ground, King’s Chapel, Old Corner Book Store, Old State House, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere House, The Old North Church, USS Constitution, and Bunker Hill Monument. Today, Americans are used to a calendar with a « year » based the earth’s rotation around the sun, with « months » having no relationship to the cycles of the moon and New Years Day falling on January 1. However, that system was not adopted in England and its colonies until 1752.

The lush forests and woods established a massive lumber industry that supported shipbuilding. Furthermore, the forests in the New York region were home to many animals that became prized for their fur. For instance, New York City and Albany were established as fur trading hubs by the Dutch before English took control. This provided many settlers in the Hudson River region seemingly unlimited amounts of beaver, https://hookupranking.org/ sea otter, deer, ermine, skunk, and bear to hunt and trap for their priceless fur. Furthermore, the soil in this region was incredibly fertile, which allowed the cultivation of numerous crops which in turn fostered many livestock to be raised, traded, and harvested. The climate and soil fostered the creation of an agrarian society that provided food and grain for the rest of the colonies and their inhabitants.

Establishing the New England Colonies

Back in England, there was a strict social hierarchy that made for little social mobility. At the top of the social pyramid were the royal family and about 100 families called peerage, the wealthiest families in England. Below peerage was the gentry or land landowners, followed by the middle class who owned some land and then, next the middling class of tradesmen that leased land.

Some of the basic Puritan tenets that carried forward as society developed were those of self-government, community responsibility, the importance of education, a belief in moral excellence, and a focus on hard work and thrift. Eventually, the Puritan churches grew collectively into the Congregational Church. Proprietary colonies were colonies where the ruler gave land to a company or and individual. The individual or company then appointed someone as governor of the colony. These colonies were considered commercial enterprises and the proprietary governor was responsible to shareholders and was in charge of protecting the investment. During the New England colonial Christmas, people reversed their roles and the poor ruled over the wealthy.

To colonize Virginia to the Virginia Company of London, a joint-stock company of investors who believed there was a profit to be made. Yet, Britain soon had populated permanent settlements in the new world for a different reason. Europe’s period of exploration and colonization was fueled largely by necessity. Europeans had become accustomed to the goods from Asia, such as the silk, spices, and pottery that had for centuries traveled the Silk Road. By the middle of the 16th century, however, this trade was under threat.

Additionally, Dutch colonists settled in the areas of the Hudson River Valley and the modern-day New York City, which was named « New Amsterdam » by the settlers. Furthermore, the Swedish Empire had holdings in America as well, which formed a large ethnic Swedish and Finnish settlement along the Delaware River and into parts of current New Jersey. Eventually, whether through warfare or diplomacy, the French, British, and Spanish Empires became the owners of land in the current United States. Most colonial settlers after this period of consolidation arrived in the Thirteen Colonies from Britain.

The Regions of Colonial America Essay

American Indians far from the Atlantic coast supplied the Atlantic market with beaver fur and deerskins. British North America had an advantage in natural resources and established its own thriving shipbuilding industry, and many North American merchants engaged in the transatlantic trade. In 1638, Sweden established the colony of New Sweden in the Delaware Valley. The operation was led by former members of the Dutch West India Company, including Peter Minuit. New Sweden established extensive trading contacts with English colonies to the south and shipped much of the tobacco produced in Virginia.

Previous colonial wars in North America had started in Europe and then spread to the colonies, but the French and Indian War is notable for having started in North America and spread to Europe. One of the primary causes of the war was increasing competition between Britain and France, especially in the Great Lakes and Ohio valley. In London beginning in 1660, all colonies were governed through a state department known as the Southern Department, and a committee of the Privy Council called the Board of Trade and Plantations. In 1768, a specific state department was created for America, but it was disbanded in 1782 when the Home Office took responsibility. The opportunity to make money was one of the primary motivators for the colonization of the New World.

Boston Massacre

While the southern colonies and New York, with its Dutch roots, embraced Christmas earlier, New England Protestants would hold out well beyond 1800. Tobacco is an extremely labor-intensive crop, which caused the need for many workers. At first indentured servants were better, since they were cheaper, but when they started living until their indenture was over, this caused a problem. As well as being extremely labor intensive, tobacco drains the soil quickly, which causes the need for a lot of soil.

The Protestants were neither happy nor comfortable with this situation. An influx of Protestants, who were largely Puritans from Virginia and New England, migrated to the colony. Because they were unused to the proprietary form of government, they expected to have a greater voice in it than the Calverts were willing to give. The Province of Carolina was initially chartered in 1629 and initial settlements were established after 1651.

Baptists and Methodists were growing rapidly during the First Great Awakening of the 1740s. By 1776, about 85% of the white population’s ancestry originated in the British Isles (English, Scots-Irish, Scottish, Welsh), 9% of German origin, 4% Dutch and 2% Huguenot French and other minorities. Over 90% were farmers, with several small cities that were also seaports linking the colonial economy to the larger British Empire. These populations continued to grow at a rapid rate during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, primarily because of high birth rates and relatively low death rates. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 restricted settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, as this was designated an Indian Reserve.