Society in the middle colonies was far more varied, cosmopolitan and tolerant than in New England. In many ways, Pennsylvania and Delaware owed their initial success to William Penn.

Read about the geographic position of the Middle Colonies and the diversity that made those colonies a crossroads of ideas.

A good look at the philosophy of the Quakers who colonized William Penn's religious refuge in the colony of Pennsylvania. Read about Penn's liberal views about government, religious freedom, and relations with Native Americans.

[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the thirteen original colonies. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.

Take this 15-question, multiple-choice quiz to test your knowledge of the Thirteen Colonies.

Article with photographs on the expansion of the new England Colonies to include the Middle and Southern Colonies. Links to primary source documents.

In contrast to New England and the middle colonies were the predominantly rural southern settlements: Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

Philadelphia was the colony of Pennsylvania forsome time. Read about what William Penn's vision was for the city and why the city became so important.

Provides six historical illustrations of the colony of New York.

A chapter from a history text that looks at the development of the Southern Colonies. It discusses the Southern agricultural economy that relied on slave labor, tobacco as a cash crop, Southern society, indentured servitude, Bacon's...

A map of the Middle Colonies of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, with portions of New York, Maryland and Delaware, showing the early European settlements in the area from 1609 to 1702. The map shows the boundary between West New...

middle colonies

middle colonies

Ironically, Henry Hudson, English explorer, was in the employ of the Dutch West India Company when he explored what is now the New York area. Read about the colony the Dutch established at the mouth of the Hudson River and see how the...

The Southern Colonies developed their own personality, just as the New England and Middle colonies did. Read about the economy of the Southern Colonies, their labor force, and why the second-born of wealthy English familes came to this...

A map of the New Jersey Colony between the establishment of the Dutch settlement at Bergen (1620) and the unification of East and West Jersey in 1702. The map shows the 'North River’ (Hudson River) and 'South River’ (Delaware River), the...

A lesson plan for helping students remember the names of the the original thirteen American colonies.

A textbook chapter about England and its relationship to its American colonies. Included are maps and map questions, study help, and assessments.

This site provides an extensive look into the people and events surrounding the founding of the original 13 colonies in America.

In this video segment from Nature, scientists work to discover why bees are disappearing. [2:39]

Learn about the theory of mercantilism and how it affected the economies of the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. Practice making a bar graph showing the value of exports to and imports from England between 1700 and 1774 with...

Factors that shaped British Colonial America. Compare and contrast life in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies.

Provides six historical illustrations of the New Amsterdam colony on Manhattan Island.

This website contains a general description of the time and reason for the first large slave auction held in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Click on Teacher's Guide for teaching resources.