The New York Colony

    New York has a very intriguing history. In the beginning it was called New Netherland. The founders of New Netherland were Samuel de Champlain and Henry Hudson. New Netherland had a wide variety of people living there , including the Dutch, French Huguenots , English, Portuguese, Africans , and Finns. This colony’s economy prospered because of the good trading set-up with the Indians . Shipbuilding, and the slave trade also ran well. The colony of New Amsterdam had many trees, water sources, fertile soil, and good agriculture. Even though New Netherland was ruled by the king, it could elect its own mayor. England later saw how prosperous New Netherland was , and took over. It was renamed New York for James, the Duke of York. The Dutch , and the English were accustomed to each other and life went on as if nothing had changed.

  One American Heroine from New York was Margaret Corbin who took over her husband’s place at the cannon when her husband was shot during a battle at Fort Washington.  She served this way until she herself was shot. The Battle of Freeman’s Farm and the Battle of Saratoga took place in New York . These battles were important because they were the turning point of the Revolutionary War, and earned the patriotic fighters an important friend.......the French. New York certainly played an important role in America’s history , and has an interesting past of its own.

Fradin, Dennis, B. The New York Colony. Chicago: Children’s Press, 1988.

Armento,Beverly,J.,Christopher L. Salter,Gary B .Nash, Karen K.Wixson America Will Be Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company.

Lily A.

Life in Pennsylvania

    Come with me, and I’ll tell you about the life in Pennsylvania. This colony was founded by William Penn. King Charles owed much money to Penn, but Penn asked that  instead of paying the money, the King grant him land in America. Penn first wanted to call the land New Wales, but an assistant to the King objected. Penn then suggested Sylvania, a Latin word meaning "forest". The King honored the Penn family though, and wanted Penn to add Penn to Sylvania, making Pennsylvania. Penn agreed to this and many people from other countries went there.

    By 1770, only Virginia had a larger population than Pennsylvania. By 1750, Philadelphia was Pennsylvania’s largest city, with 15,000 people of the 20,000 people that lived in Pennsylvania as a whole. Only Massachusetts’ city of Boston had a larger population than Philadelphia, with 20,000 people. Philadelphia had many German and Scot-Irish people as well as Quakers, the group in which William Penn belonged. Many people in Pennsylvania could not read. Pennsylvania had no public-school systems, although there were a few church-run and private schools. Wealthy families got tutors to teach their sons advanced subjects like Latin and Greek. Only boys could go to college, and they went to college in England or other colonies.

    People in Pennsylvania were merchants, ship-builders, and many other things. The first newspaper was called the "Pennsylvania Gazette", and told us that Pennsylvanians had the same interests as we do today, like local politics and events. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were both written in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania was the 2nd state to accept the Constitution, five days after Delaware. Philadelphia was also one of the cities where many major battles were fought. Valley Forge served as winter quarters for George Washington and his troops in the terrible winter of 1777 to 1778. The men had poor rations and badly-built houses, but Washington refused to have better odds of surviving. He offered a 12-dollar prize to whomever finished their cabin first, and that speeded things up. After the winter, more than 3,000 soldiers died. The Revolution ended soon after with the Americans victorious.

    That is all the time I have. I hope to see you again, and I hope you learned a lot from your experience of life in Pennsylvania.

Fradin, Dennis B.   The Pennsylvania Colony.   Chicago:  Children’s Press, 1988.

By Greg W.

The Geography and Climate of Delaware

    What are the geography and climate of Delaware? Delaware is the colony behind Rhode Island. On a map it resembles a shoe kicking upward. Nearly all of Delaware is on the water. Water covers two-thirds of the coast of Delaware. It has over fifty freshwater lakes and ponds filled with fish which is an industry. The largest river within the state is the Christiana named after Queen Christiana of Sweden.

      In the early days when the Dutch founded Delaware, they sailed down the Chesapeake Bay to the west. Instead of calling it Delaware they named it New Sweden. It was later renamed Delaware after Sir Thomas West, Lord de la Warr. The people there are shipbuilders, merchants, landowners and farmers. The farmers grew peaches for an industry.

    The climate of Delaware is not very cold. In the winters it is below 74 degrees. The summers are hot and above 80 degrees An interesting fact about Delaware is that it was the first state that approved The Constitution on December 7, 1787.

Kent , Debroah. America The Beautiful. Chicago: The Childless Press ,1991.

By Jason J.

The New Jersey Colony

    New Jersey is a middle colony. It was founded by the British but when they arrived it was populated by the Indians. There were many tribes but the biggest and most favored of them were the Lenni-Lenape, that would mean ‘’Original People" in English. They were friendly to one another and they all lived in peace.

    When the colonists arrived, if the Indians hadn’t helped them they would not have survived. They helped the colonists by hunting food for them, giving them some of the crops they had grown and helping them build shelter for cold nights and windy days. Indians also grew many different crops such as corn, squash, and beans. They had lots of deer to hunt for and their prime meat was Venacin. The colonists included are Quakers, Puritans, indentured servants, Indians, other religions and the Dutch.

    When the English did arrive they decided to take over and basically steal the Indians land. The Indians didn’t really understand what the English were doing and so they really didn’t mind until the English took their land. The Indians didn’t like this at all and neither did the friendly colonists. But the British’s power was too large and the Indians were kicked out of New Jersey. Most of the colonists  worked as farmers and mill owners growing many different kind of wheat and that’s how they got their name as the "Bread Basket." Some of the crops they were growing were: corn, rye, oats, barley, flax, they also used cows for milk and beef, chickens for eggs and meat, hogs for pork and bacon and sheep for wool.

Fradin, Dennis B.  The New Jersey Colony . Chicago: The Childrens' Press, 1988.