Colonial Life in the 13 Colonies — Three Regions (New England / Mid-Atlantic / Southern) and Daily Life Across Class, Race, Region

Morning Meeting + standing recite Three Promises. Read aloud Anne Bradstreet 1666 selected stanza from 'Upon the Burning of Our House' (first published British North American poet, of either gender — colonial-era New England voice).

• Standing recite Three Promises
• Read Bradstreet 1666 stanza
• Affirm: 'Today we map the 13 Colonies as 3 distinct regions with very different daily lives.'

Show MG-3 13 Colonies map with 3-region color-coding. Walk through each region: (1) NEW ENGLAND (Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island — note Rhode Island's exceptional religious tolerance via Roger Williams). Small family farms; shipbuilding; cod fishing; merchants; high literacy from Bible reading; town meetings (CA HSS 5.4.5 representative assemblies). Religion: Puritan / Congregationalist majority + Anglican + Quakers in Rhode Island + small Jewish community in Newport RI (Touro Synagogue 1763, oldest synagogue in North America). Demographics: most ethnically homogeneous (English) of the 3 regions. Anne Bradstreet 1666 represents this voice. (2) MID-ATLANTIC (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware). 'Bread-basket' wheat colonies; Philadelphia (largest city in colonies by 1750) and NYC ports; ethnically and religiously most DIVERSE region. Pennsylvania founded by William Penn (Quaker, 1681) with religious tolerance. Religion: Quaker + Lutheran (Germans) + Anglican + Reformed Dutch + Catholic + Jewish + Mennonite + Moravian. Demographics: ~40% non-English by 1775 (Germans largest non-English group). (3) SOUTHERN (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia). Plantation tobacco (Chesapeake) + rice/indigo (South Carolina Low Country) + Anglican established church. Demographics: majority-enslaved in many counties (South Carolina was majority-Black by 1708). DAILY LIFE ACROSS 5 KINDS OF COLONISTS PER REGION — discuss enslaved African Americans (lessons 9-10-13 connection), free Black colonists (small but growing), Indigenous nations within and adjacent (Wampanoag in MA, Powhatan in VA, Lenape in PA-DE-NJ, Cherokee in SC mountains — Sovereignty Promise), women across class (femes covert vs. femes sole legal distinction), indentured servants (1/2 to 2/3 of English immigrants to the Chesapeake came as indentured servants), planter/merchant elite vs. yeoman farmers vs. landless laborers. Mayflower Compact 1620 + Virginia House of Burgesses 1619 + Massachusetts town meetings = CA HSS 5.4.5 early democratic ideas and practices.

• The 13 Colonies were never demographically homogeneous — the Mid-Atlantic was particularly diverse.

  model Pennsylvania (founded by William Penn 1681) and the Hudson Valley (former New Netherland) attracted religious refugees from across Europe — Quakers from England, German Pietists from the Palatinate, Lutherans, Reformed Dutch, Mennonites, Moravians, Catholics from Maryland, Jews. By 1775, ~40% of the Mid-Atlantic population was non-English. Demographic diversity → religious diversity → economic diversity.

  prompt Why was the Mid-Atlantic region the most diverse?
• The Southern colonies' economic structure was inseparable from chattel slavery.

  model Because the plantation economy (tobacco / rice / indigo) required intensive labor that the Southern planter class used enslaved African labor to provide. South Carolina was MAJORITY-BLACK by 1708. The Stono Rebellion 1739 took place in this majority-Black context.

  prompt Why did the Southern region have a majority-enslaved population in many counties?

• Name the 3 colonial regions and 1 economic specialty per region.
• Why was the Mid-Atlantic the most diverse?
• Why was the Southern region majority-Black in many counties?

Children apply MG-7 page 1 SOURCING + page 4 CLOSE READING to Anne Bradstreet's 1666 'Upon the Burning of Our House' selected stanzas. Discuss the New England Puritan worldview embedded in the poem.

M-5-F-CUL-11-A Map

Large 36 x 48 inch wall map of the 13 English colonies organized into 3 colonial regions: NEW ENGLAND in deep blue (MA, NH, CT, RI), MID-ATLANTIC in deep purple (NY, NJ, PA, DE), SOUTHERN in deep red (MD, VA, NC, SC, GA). Major colonial cities marked: Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Williamsburg, Charleston, Savannah. Proclamation Line of 1763 shown as thick red line along Appalachian crest. Indigenous nations within and adjacent to each colony shown as soft-color regions (Wampanoag in MA, Powhatan/Pamunkey in VA, Lenape between PA-NJ, Iroquois along NY, Cherokee in NC/SC mountains). Each region labeled with primary economic specialization and religious diversity profile. Atlantic shipping routes shown.

MG-3 Map

13 Colonies map (1763, post-French-and-Indian War) — large detailed map of the 13 English colonies organized into the 3 colonial regions (NEW ENGLAND: Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island; MID-ATLANTIC: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware; SOUTHERN: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia) with major colonial cities marked (Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Williamsburg, Charleston, Savannah), the Proclamation Line of 1763 shown as a thick red line along the Appalachian crest, the territories of the major Indigenous nations within and adjacent to each colony shown as soft-color regions (Wampanoag in MA, Powhatan/Pamunkey in VA, Lenape between PA and NJ, Iroquois along NY, Cherokee in NC/SC mountains, etc.), the colonial-economic specialization of each region labeled (NEW ENGLAND: small farms / shipping / shipbuilding / cod fishing / merchants / Puritan + Anglican; MID-ATLANTIC: 'bread-basket' wheat / Philadelphia and NYC ports / Quaker + Lutheran + Anglican + Reformed Dutch + Catholic + Jewish — religiously most diverse; SOUTHERN: plantation tobacco/rice/indigo with enslaved African labor / fewer cities / Anglican + Baptist + Methodist), and Atlantic shipping routes shown. MG-3a is the manipulative companion card-sort set (40 cards: 13 colony cards + 13 capital cards + 14 economic-/religious-/founder cards). Style: detail-rich line work, colorblind-safe regional palette.

• Sort the MG-3a 40-card set (13 colony cards + 13 capital cards + 14 economic-/religious-/founder cards) into 3 regional piles.

  scaffold Use MG-3 reference; partner check.
• In small groups, fill out a 3-Region Daily-Life Comparison Chart for 5 kinds of colonists per region.

  scaffold Use sentence frames; chart template.

• Name the 3 colonial regions, an economic specialty per region, and 1 demographic feature per region.
• Apply Sovereignty Promise to the Wampanoag (MA), Powhatan (VA), Lenape (PA-DE-NJ), and Cherokee (SC) — present-day.

• Standing recite Three Promises
• Preview tomorrow: Declaration of Independence principles AND contradictions — the Founding Contradiction T-chart

• Find one source on YOUR home state's colonial-era status (if outside original 13) or colonial-era region (if in original 13). Bring back one fact.