Urban Growth in the Colonies

Chapter Four - The Colonies Develop

There are four main points to Chapter Four:

I. Financial Implications– How did money impact the development of the colonies?

II. Development of Slave Industry– Why did the slave industry develop differently in the colonies?

III. Growth of Cities– What was the impact of urban growth in the colonies?

IV. Immigration– How did the migration of the various European people in the colonies impact the culture?

What does Urban Growth mean? An urban area is characterized by a large population in a small area. The large harbors on the east coast became the primary places where people

first landed when they immigrated from Europe. What options did these people have and where could they go? The New England area had a strong Puritan community that had little

religious tolerance and demanded the community believe as they did. The South as made up of large plantations. There was not much land

available and it was very labor intensive to work. The choice that new immigrants had was to either stay in the cities or move

to the western frontier. Many people stayed in the cities and looked for work.

This is where we can see tremendous urban growth in such cities as New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

The people that made up these cities were an eclectic blend of intelligent and skillful businessmen.

Therefore it was in the cities that the business side of the colonies developed.

The Evolution of the Major Colonial Cities So, how did these cities become such a force in the

colonies? Keep in mind that the development of the early

colonies was impacted by what was going on in England (Europe) at this time period.

There was political turmoil with the various and ongoing religious wars over authority.

There was additional economic turmoil between the class systems in England.

As such, the Americas and all it offered provided England with a means to maintain the wealth, to maintain the power and to remain the dominant world force.

They controlled the money and they controlled the power.

The colonies provided a new and exciting era for England. They had this great opportunity to expand their kingdom

with the physical land in America. The America’s therefore, was seen as an extension of

England. They were the children (so to speak) sent out to represent their family. They were provided support and protection and the family was expecting them to make good in the return investment.

The colonist on the other hand did not believe the same as their long lost relatives in the “Old Country”.

Time had passed by and many of the people now living in the Americas had been born in the colonies. They certainly still had connections in England and understood themselves as British citizens with full rights (protection).

What was the mindset of the colonists

It was in the cities that a new brand of leadership began to emerge. As businesses began to develop in the cities, so did a new class of wealthy

educated men who were very opinionated about their new identity. These colonists understood themselves as a new type of English citizen. They were adventuresome, hardworking, outspoken and brash about their

accomplishments in the “New World”. They wanted to be heard and they wanted a say in their governing rules. They realized that communication and edicts from England were slow in

coming. By the time the ruling power in England (King and Parliament) reacted to a situation and responded, many months had passed by and the situation was irrelevant.

With this new type of brash freedom instilled in the culture and daily lifestyle of the colonist a new and different class of people began to evolve – a middle class!

The emergence of the middle class

The thirteen colonies had this unique connection with each other through their English roots.

However, keep in mind that these colonies still developed differently through their own personal beliefs, their surrounding environment and the opportunities where they lived.

Each colonial region had its own distinct economy The South developed an economy based on the large plantations

and slavery. The north developed an economy on lumber, fishing and the shipping industry.

The Middle colonies was a blend of the North and the South, economically, geographically and ethically.

However, the middle colonies had these large urban areas that developed called cities.

The thirteen colonies

Colonial Cities of the Middle Colonies

New York City An Italian, Giovanni da Verrazano discovered New York

Harbor in 1524. In 1609 an Englishman, Henry Hudson, sailed up the Hudson River. Then in 1624 the Dutch founded the first permanent trading post

The Dutch built a little town on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. It was called New Amsterdam and it flourished by selling skins.

In 1653 a wall was built across Manhattan Island to protect the little town of New Amsterdam. The street next to it was called Wall Street.

In 1639 a Swede called Jonas Bronck settled in the Bronx, which is named after him. A settlement was founded at Flushing in 1645.

In 1664 an English fleet arrived. Fearing the English would sack the colony the Dutch surrendered. It was renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II.

By 1700 New York had a population of almost 5,000 and it continued to grow rapidly. By 1776 the population was about 25,000. In 1800 New York City had about 60,000 inhabitants.

Philadelphia The Philadelphia region was first settled by Swedes in the first half of the seventeenth century. It was not until 1682 that the Englishman William Penn, having received a land grant from King Charles II, founded his settlement between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, north of the existing Swedish settlement. Penn planned a town with the promise of religious freedom.

By the eighteenth century, thanks to its fine port and good agricultural land, Philadelphia had become the foremost city in the 13 British colonies.

Philadelphians actively participated in the debate that preceded the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and were heavily involved in the Revolutionary War (1775–1783), during which their city was occupied by British troops.

The members of the Continental Congress fled to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, taking the Liberty Bell with them. After the war, Philadelphia was the site of the Constitutional Convention, at which the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787, and the city served as the capital of the new country in the 1790s before the completion of Washington, D.C.

Baltimore

In 1632, England's King Charles I gave George Calvert (Lord Baltimore) a vast area in colonial America that became Baltimore County in 1659. During the 1660s the Maryland General Assembly appointed commissioners who granted land patents and development privileges to enterprising colonists. Although the Piscataway and Susquehannock tribes originally lived in neighboring regions, tribal competition and the onslaught of colonial diseases dissipated all but a few hundred of the Native Americans in Maryland by 1700.

The sandy plains bordering the Chesapeake Bay were ideal for growing tobacco, and a tobacco-based economy quickly developed in pre-Revolutionary Maryland. An area of 550 acres, formerly known as "Cole's Harbor," was sold to Baltimore landowners Daniel and Charles Carroll in 1696; they sold a parcel of this land in one-acre lots for development. These lots became Baltimore Town, which grew quickly in both size and trade. By 1742 regular tobacco shipments were leaving Baltimore harbor for Europe.