Characteristics Of The First Colony Colonies

1227 Words5 Pages

From the Beginning of the first founded colony to the last, there are many different factors that distinct each out differently. These factor are what form our cities today and give them the characteristics that they have today. Some of these Colonies are New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Each of these have different crops, religious aspects and many social rules that define them. New York was the third Colony to be Established in the Early 1600s. This Middle Colony was founded by the Dutch and was originally called New Amsterdam. The first town was Fort Orange which was named after William of Orange. This colony is a royal colony ruled by the Monarchy in England. Charles II first gave the colony as a proprietorship to his brother James, …show more content…

The Colony was later Ruled by King James II then making it a royal Colony. In New York they had patroonship and wanted many other wealthy Dutch people to come to the colony to make it prosper. James the Duke of York had to separate the land of New York and gave it to 2 Proprietors, Berkley and Carteret one got the Western portion and the other got the Eastern portion (New Jersey). They had to make sure that their plantations were narrow to the river, but had a large amount of width. With this strategy they were able to pay less tax. They not that large either, the largest one was Rensselaerswyck which is the size of Rhode Island. Since there were many Wealthy people there, New York was one of the most aristocratic colonies along with South Carolina. along with the Aristocrats there were many Loyalist that stayed with the monarchy and loved to follow them. They Economy in New York was rather booming. The Indians and the Dutch had a very good Fur Trade system. There wasn’t many problems with the Indians, they were peaceful and cooperated together which is a reason why New York was so successful. Since they were by the water they had good trade along the ports. The New Yorkers also had good soil, so they sold a variety of things. Among these were plump apples in …show more content…

The first settlement was Jamestown in 1607 - 1699. The experience there for the Pilgrims were crucial. They ended up spending a starving time from 1609-1610. The event was so harsh that some turned to cannibalism, there was even one account where a man ate his wife. Virginia later became a very wealthy colony, developing the first American cash crop. Tobacco was refined by John Rolfe who later married Pocahontas. His tobacco was smooth and tasted good, unlike the ones before that had poor quality, wasn’t smooth, and tasted weird. There was huge profit from this in the colony and for England. England took the tobacco, sent it to other countries, the people get addicted, they then buy more, the king is happy, he sends more supplies and help down to Virginia so that they can grow and prosper. There was about 200,000 pounds of tobacco that was sent to England in 1624, by 1638 there was more than 3,000,000 pounds. The people were governed by a basic Feudal system that incorporated the Headright System where a master with land would pay for someone to come to the New World as pay back they work for then for 7 years (Indentured Servants). After those 7 year you get 50 acres of land. They later were the first to establish an Elected Representative Assembly called the House of Burgesses. They began first with 22 rich white men and practised