Founding of America's First Colonies

The Founders of American Colonies

The people who created the first colonies are considered the founders, establishing the customs to which later arrivals and immigrants had to adjust. The English Crown legalized companies that undertook the colonization of America as private enterprises.

Southern Colonial Settlements

One such company established the first English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Tobacco provided a profitable export, and to meet the demand for labor, in 1619, the first African laborers were imported as indentured servants (free contracted people hired for 5 to 7 years of servitude). Virginia imported 1,500 free laborers a year, and by 1700, it had a population of 7,500 white Americans and 10,000 Africans.

In 1630, Lord Baltimore established Maryland as a haven for Catholics, an English persecuted minority.

In 1660, other English aristocrats financed Georgia and the Carolinas, which flourished with rice and indigo crops.

New England Colonial Settlements

In 1620, the Pilgrims (a small separatist group from the Church of England) founded the first of the Northern colonies at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

In 1630, the Puritans (who wanted to purify the Church of England, not separate from it) established the much larger Massachusetts Bay Colony. By 1700, this colony had expanded to the coast of Maine, absorbed Plymouth, and spawned the colony of Connecticut. These New England colonies became the shippers of America and, due to their religious intolerance, became the most homogenous region in the colonies.

Middle Colonial Settlements

The Middle Colonies (New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) originated as Dutch and Swedish outposts for the fur trade, almost accidentally becoming colonies. Key developments include:

• New Sweden, along the Delaware River, was occupied by New Netherlands along the Hudson River.
• New Netherlands itself fell into English hands in 1664. When New Amsterdam became New York, the English authorities continued the Dutch tolerance for different ethnic and religious groups. The Dutch maintained their culture in New York and New Jersey for more than 200 years.
• Pennsylvania's founders were Quakers who flocked to the area in 1681 as religious refugees. Their toleration attracted a population whose diversity was matched only by New York.