1. Unit 2
History of Our
Country
The Search for Freedom

2. Key Information for Unit 2
• Unit 2 is about Freedom.You will learn the answers
to these questions:
• Where were the 13 colonies?
• Why did the colonists want freedom from Great
Britain?
• What happened before they got their freedom?

3. Chapter 4
Life in the 13 Colonies,
1650-1750

4. Vocabulary for Chapter 4
• treaty
• rural
• plantation
• frontier
• settler

5. Life in the 13 Colonies
• Discussion Questions:
• How did American Indians and Colonists get
along?
• Vocabulary for this section:
•treaty

6. 13 Colonies
Who ruled ALL 13 colonies?

7. The small English
settlements in
Virginia and
Massachusetts
were only a
beginning.

8. By the middle of the
1700s, there were 13
13
separate English
colonies in America.

9. All the colonies were
ruled by Great Britain.

10. Most colonists
were farmers.
They grew their
own food and
made their own
clothes.

11. Colonists learned to live with
nearby American Indians.

12. William Penn was a colonist
who made a treaty with
American Indians.

13. A treaty is a
written
agreement.

14. Penn paid them for their
land and always treated
them fairly.

15. New England
Middle Colonies
Southern Colonies
QUESTION:
Were all colonists the same?
How were they different?

16. New England Colonies
In 1750 there were four
colonies in New England.
New England is in the
northeast region of the
United States.

17. These colonies
were
Massachusetts,
Connecticut ,
Rhode Island,
and New
Hampshire.

18. The biggest city in New
England was Boston,
Massachusetts.

19. It was a pretty town of brick
houses and neat flower gardens.

20. There were several schools
and churches in Boston.

21. Much of the land in New England was
rocky and poor. Farming was hard.

22. How do you think New
Englanders made their living?
How did they earn money?

23. Off the coast of New
England, the ocean waters
were filled with fish.

24. Many New Englanders made
their living from the ocean.
They fished, and they built
ships.

25. What if you were walking around this harbor?
You would see many sailors working.
You would smell fish drying in the air.

26. Fish were caught by hand
and in nets.

27. The fish were cleaned.

28. Some fish were smoked.

29. Other fish were dried with salt.

30. Finally the fish were shipped
to Europe to be sold.

31. The
Middle
Colonies

32. Look at the map on
page 38.
What are the names of
the middle colonies?

33. The middle colonies had
rich farmlands.

34. They also had forests full of a
small animal called a beaver.
The beaver was very
important.

35. In Europe, beaver hats
were popular.

36. Fur trappers and traders
became rich selling beaver
fur to people in Europe

37. Why was William Penn
Important?

38. William Penn started the
colony Pennsylvania.

39. He said there was to be
freedom of religion for all.

40. Who did William Penn think
could vote in Pennsylvania?

41. All men who owned land
has the right to vote.

42. Anyone accused of a
crime could have a fair
trial with a jury.

43. People came to Pennsylvania
from all over Europe.

44. Pennsylvania became a place
where many different people
lived together in peace.

45. By 1750, Philadelphia,
was the biggest city in
the Middle colonies.

46. A visitor from England thought,
“there was almost 2,000
beautiful brick houses.”

47. New York Colony
Why did only a few
people live in New York?

48. The colony of New York
grew more slowly.
In New York, a few
rich people owned
much of the land.

49. Workers who lived there
could not own the land.
So people did not want to
settle in New York.

50. The Southern
Colonies
vocabulary in this
section:
plantation

51. The
Southern
Colonies
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia

52. What was the most
important crop grown on
Southern plantations?

53. In 1750, the big city was
Charleston, South Carolina.

54. Charleston had some most of the
finest homes in the colonies.

55. Silk and fine china came to Charleston
harbor from all over the world.

56. The Southern colonies
were the most rural.

57. A rural area is one with
many farms and few
towns or cities.

58. In the South, large farms
were called plantations.

59. A plantation was like a town.

60. What did plantations have?

61. Plantations had a
vegetable garden
and a flour mill.

62. Blacksmiths worked on
plantations.

63. Weavers worked on
plantations.

64. Shoemakers worked on
plantations.

65. The main crops were tobacco and rice.

66. Tobacco and rice were
sold in Northern cities
and around the world.

67. Why were plantations built
near water?

68. Often plantations were
built on a river or
waterway so goods could
travel by water.

69. Plantations needed
many workers.

70. Most colonists wanted their
own farms and could buy land
cheaply in the western parts
of the colonies.

71. Who worked on plantations?

72. Plantation owners had
slaves to work the land.

73. Where were slaves from?

74. The slaves had been kidnapped
from their homes in Africa and
brought on ships to America.

75. How were slaves treated?

76. Here they were bought and
sold like pieces of property.

77. By 1750, slaves made up
one fourth (1/4) of the
population in the South.

78. On the
Frontier
Vocabulary for this section:
frontier
settler

79. What was the frontier?

80. The western
edge of the 13
colonies was
know as the
frontier.

81. Sometimes small farms
there were just cleared
places in the woods

82. (page 41) Look at the trees. After the
trees were cut down what did people
do with them?

83. Life was hard for frontier settlers.

84. Settlers are people who
go to live in a new place.

85. They grew crops like
wheat, potatoes, and squash

86. They hunted for deer
and bear.

87. They made most of the
things they needed.
They made their own tools.

88. They baked bread,
made jam, spun cloth.

89. Chapter 5 Preview
The Road to Freedom
French and Indian War
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Tea Party
Independence
WAR?