History of the Early Colonies

The Pilgrims came on December 26, 1620. Originally headed for Virginia, the Pilgrims were set off-course by storms and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They came looking for a new life that would give them freedom of religion and started the New England colonies. The Middle Colonies grew between the 1600s and 1700s when thousands more people from Europe came to find a new way of life. The first settlers to set foot in America were the settlers of Jamestown, Virginia. The people of Jamestown came looking for profit. This area became part of the Southern Colonies. By 1750, the Southern Colonies had the most land settled.
NEW ENGLAND

With the bulk of the early settlers living in villages and towns around the harbors, many New Englanders carried on some kind of trade or business. Common pastureland and woodlots served the needs of townspeople, who worked small farms nearby. Compactness made possible the village school, the village church and the village or town hall, where citiz...