Kim Welsh, age 14, of Asbury, N.J., for her question:
WHICH WERE THE ORIGINAL 13 AMERICAN COLONIES?
In the early 1600s, the British king started granting charters for the purpose of establishing colonies in America. By the mid 1700s, most of the settlements had been formed into 13 British colonies that stretched from what is now Maine in the north to Georgia in the south.
The 13 colonies included Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire in the far north; the middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware; Virginia and Maryland along Chesapeake Bay; and North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia in the far south.
Virginia and Maryland were among the earliest British colonies.
Virginia began with the Jamestown settlement of 1607. An organization of English merchants sent settlers to America hoping they would find gold and other treasures. But the settlers found no such treasures and faced great hardships. In 1612 some settlers began growing tobacco which became a popular crop that sold well in Europe. Then Virginia prospered.
Maryland was founded by the Calverts, a family of wealthy English Roman Catholics who had been persecuted in England. Maryland settlers also raised tobacco and prospered.
Puritans, originally financed by English merchants, founded the New England Colonies.
The Dutch founded New Netherlands, a trading post and colony that included what are now New York and northern New Jersey. And the Swedes established a trading post and settlement called New Sweden in present day Delaware and southern New Jersey. The Dutch claimed New Sweden in 1655. But in 1664, the British took over New Netherland and New Sweden.
In 1681, William Penn of England received a charter that made him proprietor of Pennsylvania. The colony thrived and Philadelphia became the largest city in colonial America.
In 1663, King Charles II gave the land south of Virginia to eight proprietors. The northern two thirds became North and South Carolina and the southern third became Georgia.
The earliest colonists had to struggle to produce enough food to stay alive. But before long, colonial America had a thriving economy. Planters grew large crops of rice, indigo and tobacco. Small farmers raised livestock and such crops as corn and wheat.
When not busy in their fields, many farmers fished or hunted. Some cut lumber from forests to provide the materials for such products as barrels and ships.
The colonists exported large quantities of goods. They traded chiefly with Britain, whose manufacturing firms depended on raw materials from its colonies. In return, they received manufactured goods.
Colonial America, like Europe, had both wealthy upper class people and poor lower class people. But in Europe, old traditions made economic and social advancement rare. America had no such traditions.
Advancement in America was possible for everyone willing to work hard, except slaves. In the New World, land was plentiful and easy to obtain, and there were many opportunnities to start new businesses.