Middle Colonies Facts & Worksheets

The British Middle Colonies in North America had a mix of both northern and southern features, creating a unique environment of early settlement by non-English Europeans.

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Table of Contents

Between New England and the Southern Colonies, the Middle Colonies comprised a portion of the Thirteen Colonies in British America; nowadays, this region roughly corresponds to the Mid-Atlantic states. Before the British began to govern the territory, a large portion of the area was a part of New Netherlands.

See the fact file below for more information on the Middle Colonies, or you can download our 24-page Middle Colonies worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

History

• In 1609, Henry Hudson traveled up the Hudson River to Albany, New York, then along the Delaware Bay to scout out the Middle Colonies for the Dutch East India Company. Between 1610 and 1616, the Dutch went on additional exploration and mapping missions; in 1613, they established the first Dutch colonies, and it was in 1614 that New Netherlands first appeared on maps.
• The third governor of New Netherlands later established the Colony of New Sweden on Delaware Bay in 1638 with Swedish financial support. In 1655, the Dutch took control of this region.
• The English seized control of this territory from the Dutch in October 1664 as a precursor to the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Even though the Dutch won the conflict in 1667, the English kept control of the New Netherlands. It changed its name to New York in honor of the Duke of York, the brother of the English King who had co-instigated the War and led the invasion of New Netherlands for personal benefit.
• The Third Anglo-Dutch War concluded in 1674 after the Dutch retook the region in 1673, although they later gave it up as part of the Treaty of Westminster.

Province of New Jersey

• The region west of the Hudson River was dubbed New Jersey by King Charles II. He handed his brother, the Duke of York (later King James II of England), the area between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony.
• Later, James II gave Sir Georg Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton the territory between the Hudson and the Delaware Rivers, two allies who remained faithful to him throughout the English Civil War. The Province of New Jersey was founded on this land gift.
• On March 18, 1674. Lord Berkeley sold his stake in the Colony to London-based Quaker merchant Edward Nyllynge after having trouble collecting taxes.
• Although they created East Jersey and West Jersey due to this sale, they established the line separating the two in the Quintipartite Deed of 1676. Colonists fought over contested colonial borders in the New York-New Jersey Line War, which raged from 1701 to 1765.
• On April 15, 1702, Queen Anne united West and East Jersey into the Province of New Jersey, a single Royal Colony. The Colony’s first governor was appointed to be Edward Hyde, the third Earl of Clarendon.
• Following Hyde’s 1708 recall to England due to allegations of graft, bribery, and corruption, the governor of New York was appointed to lead New Jersey.
• To rule the Colony, the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, composed of chosen delegates, was established in January 1776. William Franklin, the Royal Governor, was detained on June 15 after Congress labeled him “an enemy to the rights of the country.”

Province of Pennsylvania

• On March 4, 1681, William Penn received the property that would become the Pennsylvania Colony as payment for a debt the King owed his family. Before setting off for the Colony, Penn drafted the Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, which urged religious acceptance of various organizations, including the Religious Society of Friends and local aborigines.
• Pennsylvania was surrounded by the Delaware River, New York, Maryland, and New Jersey colonies, and the 42nd and 39th parallels north.
• David Lloyd and the Pennsylvania Assembly used this occasion to ask for more authority for elected authorities. Penn finally consented to enable their Charter of Privileges to be included in the constitution after visiting the Colony in 1669 and 1701.
• As Pennsylvania’s enthusiasm for revolution grew, the Continental Congress soon convened in Philadelphia, the nation’s largest metropolis. Locally elected revolutionaries put the Pennsylvania Constitution into print in 1776, ending the Colony’s history and founding the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Province of New York

• Around 1613, the first Dutch settlers came to the New York region. In 1664, the English defeated the Dutch. It took control of the New Netherlands Colony, dubbing it the Province of New York in honor of the King’s brother, the Duke of York (later King James II).
• The Province of New Jersey broke away from the City of New York in 1665. Still, the conflict between the two states persisted until the final limits were set in 1769 and accepted by the legislatures and the King in 1772 and 1773, respectively.
• On October 30, 1683, a constitution was written and adopted, granting the colonists several rights, notably the prohibition against taxation without representation. James II, however, revoked the form after learning about it.
• When the Duke of York was crowned King James II of England, New York was a royal province. In May 1688, the region briefly acceded to the Dominion of New England. Following James II’s overthrow, the inhabitants of New York revolted against the Royal Governor in Leisler’s Rebellion.
• They expelled Governor William Tryon and other royal representatives from the province on October 19, 1775. The town’s troops lost their colonial status on October 19, 1775. The colonial position of the new state was abolished with the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776.

Delaware Colony

• Between 1631 and 1655, the Dutch and Swedes traded control of Delaware. Dutch rule in Delaware persisted until Sir Robert Carr, still based in New Castle, took over New Amstel for the Duke of York in 1664.
• Delaware was ruled by a Duke’s deputy from 1664 until 1682. The Delaware region, known as “The Three Lower Counties on the Delaware River,” was given to William Penn by the Duke of York in exchange for his land grant in Pennsylvania in 1681.
• Penn conceded to granting them a separate colonial assembly in 1701 after experiencing difficulties controlling the ethnically diverse Delaware area.

Geography

• In stark contrast to the surrounding New England Colonies, which had more stony terrain, the somewhat unglaciated Middle Colonies had excellent soil. The colonies earned the nickname “the Bread Basket Colonies” because of the enormous grain exports that originated from this region.
• Between 1725 and 1840, Pennsylvania was the primary food producer in the colonies and subsequent states, thanks to its wheat, corn, rye, hemp, and flax export.
• The Susquehanna River, the Delaware River, and the Hudson River are broad navigable rivers with calm currents that draw a variety of industries. Along these rivers, fur trappers traveled, and there was sufficient flow to support water wheel-powered milling.

Industry

• The Middle Colonies attracted the shipbuilding and logging industries because of their abundant woods. Deep river estuaries and these industries together brought the development of essential ports like New York and Philadelphia.
• Despite having far greater industry than the Southern Colonies, the Middle Colonies could not compete with New England’s. In Pennsylvania, there were several sawmills and gristmills, and the textile industry overgrew.
• The Pennsylvania long rifle and the Conestoga wagon were among the products of pig iron, which the Colony also developed into a significant manufacturer. Printing, publishing and the allied papermaking sector were other essential businesses.

Politics

• Political organizations in the Middle Colonies originated as tiny, specialized groups of women. These alliances ultimately developed into broad, powerful political groups, particularly during the French and Indian War.
• Elected Colonial Assemblies and Royal or Proprietary Governors typically governed the Middle Colonies. Several Middle Colony constitutions protected religious freedom, and taxation without representation was prohibited.
• Several royal governors were deposed or imprisoned, most notably when the governor of New Jersey was deposed, and Leisler’s Rebellion broke out in New York.
• The Middle Colonies experienced increasing instability before the area finally became a meeting location for the Continental Congress and a hotbed of revolution.

Demographics

• The Middle Colonies sometimes combined elements of the Southern and New England Colonies. Landholdings were typically family-owned farms with 40 to 160 acres (16-65 hectares).
• The Middle Colonies were more ethnically varied and generally more tolerant than other British colonial areas in North America. For instance, New York granted citizenship to any foreigner who professed Christianity there, which resulted in a more ethnically diversified population. As a result, the Middle Colonies were the site of most early German colonization in the Americas.
• After 1717, waves of Scotch-Irish immigrants started arriving in the Middle Colonies. Most of their advances were made along the western boundary of the colonies, where they frequently ran across Indians. Scottish Highlanders, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, and French Huguenots were other groups.

English Colonists

• Around the time the English gained direct control of the Middle Colonies in 1664, the Puritans had already driven numerous Rhode Island-based Quakers into the area while settling Episcopalian business people in Philadelphia and New York City.
• However, Rhode Island was regarded as a New England colony indelible after joining the Dominion of New England. An ongoing New England impact and tight ties to neighboring New England colonies like Vermont were made possible by New York’s early ownership of portions of Maine.
• Irish Protestant immigration was supported by William Penn and the Lords of Baltimore in the hopes that they would be able to hire indentured enslaved people to work on colonial projects and in their states. The Middle Colonies frequently showed strong Irish cultural influence.

Labor

• There was never enough labor. The most typical option was to enslave young white people. These were young people from Britain or Germany whose parents had made arrangements for them to cross the ocean by working for families in the colonies until they turned 21.
• Most of them settled down to be farmers or farmwives. Enslaved African Americans made up 12% of the population of New York in the middle of the eighteenth century. Most worked as field laborers on Dutch estates or as house servants in Manhattan.

Religion

• The Middle Colonies were the most religiously varied and tolerant region of the British Empire. The Colony became a favored vacation spot for Quakers since the Penn family belonged to that community. Scotch-Irish Presbyterians are mentioned with German Lutherans, German Reformed, and several tiny sects, including Mennonites, Amish, and Moravians.
• Dutch Calvinists, Swedish Lutherans, Palatine Mennonites, and Amish were among the non-British emigrants. In 1654, when it was still New Amsterdam, there was already a Jewish community in New York, and in 1655, Jews began to settle in what would later become Pennsylvania.

Middle Colonies Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Middle Colonies across 24 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use Middle Colonies worksheets are perfect for teaching students about the British Middle Colonies in North America, which had a mix of northern and southern features, creating a unique environment of early settlement by non-English Europeans. A combination of both urban and rural lifestyles made it more cosmopolitan, religiously pluralistic, and socially tolerant within a commercial atmosphere.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

• Colonial Census
• Colony Search
• Middle Pop Quiz
• Postcard From a Colony
• Voc-OWL-bulary
• Different But Same
• Raise Your Flags
• Colonial Time Machine
• Colonial Mapping
• 3, 2, 1…Go!

Frequently Asked Questions

What comprised the Middle Colonies?

Between New England and the Southern Colonies, the Middle Colonies, comprising a portion of the Thirteen Colonies in British America; nowadays, this region roughly corresponds to the Mid-Atlantic states. Before the British began to govern the territory, a large portion of the area was a part of New Netherlands.

How were the Middle Colonies established?

In 1609, Henry Hudson traveled up the Hudson River to Albany, New York, then along the Delaware Bay to scout out the Middle Colonies for the Dutch East India Company. Between 1610 and 1616, the Dutch went on additional exploration and mapping missions; in 1613, they established the first Dutch colonies, and it was in 1614 that New Netherlands first appeared on maps.

What was the Delaware Colony?

Between 1631 and 1655, the Dutch and Swedes traded control of Delaware. Dutch rule in Delaware persisted until Sir Robert Carr, still based in New Castle, took over New Amstel for the Duke of York in 1664. Delaware was ruled by a Duke’s deputy from 1664 until 1682. The Delaware region, known as “The Three Lower Counties on the Delaware River,” was given to William Penn by the Duke of York in exchange for his land grant in Pennsylvania in 1681. Penn conceded to granting them a separate colonial assembly in 1701 after experiencing difficulties controlling the ethnically diverse Delaware area.

What was the labor status in Middle Colonies?

There was never enough labor. The most typical option was to enslave young white people. These were young people from Britain or Germany whose parents had made arrangements for them to cross the ocean by working for families in the colonies until they turned 21. Most of them settled down to be farmers or farmwives. Enslaved African Americans made up 12% of the population of New York in the middle of the eighteenth century. Most worked as field laborers on Dutch estates or as house servants in Manhattan.

What was the focus of industry in the Middle Colonies?

The Middle Colonies attracted the shipbuilding and logging industries because of their abundant woods. Deep river estuaries and these industries together brought the development of essential ports like New York and Philadelphia.

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