The First 7 Colonies Timeline: Part 2

Have you ever heard of Connecticut, or perhaps Rhode Island? Have you ever heard or read about New York? If so, what do you know about these places? Could you point these places out on the map below?

Some of the colonies were established for faith-based reasons while others were established for financial and economic reasons.

Connecticut began with a government like Plymouth. Each town allowed people to have a say in decisions, and vote on the important ones.

1636

The Colony of Rhode Island

In 1636, Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams, a colonist from Massachusetts, who is known as the “Father of Rhode Island.” Like many English Puritans, Roger Williams came to Massachusetts as part of a migration of Puritans from England to the New World. When Williams arrived, he was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but he quickly realized that the Puritan church had not severed all of its ties with the Church of England; and so, was not pure enough. For this reason, he refused to fill the position of minister in the church of Boston and was made to leave because he did not agree with their views.

Williams moved to an area known as “Providence Plantation,” establishing it as a place of religious freedom. The name stuck, and Providence is the present-day capital of the state. A similarly strong leader in the early history of Rhode Island was Anne Hutchinson. Hutchinson was a preacher whose faith went against what the Puritans believed at the time. Her teachings made the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony unhappy, and like Roger Williams, she was forced to leave her home in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hutchinson and her family joined Roger Williams in Rhode Island and founded Portsmouth. Rhode Island was the last of the 13 Colonies to become a state on May 29, 1790.

1636

The Colony of Connecticut

In 1636, the Connecticut Colony was founded by a Puritan colonist named Thomas Hooker. The name of the settlement came from a Native American word that means ‘river whose water is driven by tides or winds.’ The people who lived in Connecticut experienced long, cold winters and mild summers. The cold weather helped slow the spread of disease but at the same time limited the food they could cultivate (i.e., corn, pumpkins, squash, and rye). The land was also difficult to farm due to the hills and rocky nature of the landscape. The settlement was close to the ocean where many rivers were also located. These geographic features were advantageous for fishing, transportation, and trade.

Connecticut began with a government system much like the Pilgrims, whereby everyone had a voice and was able to vote. To ensure the stability of this practice over time, the colonists wrote a document called the Fundamental Orders. The “Orders” consisted of several rules on how to vote for their leaders and how to make and change laws. On January 9th, 1788, the Connecticut Colony was the fifth colony to become a state.

1638

The Colony of Delaware

Around the year 1638, the Swedish and the Dutch settled in the present-day state of Delaware. In the beginning, Delaware was named Delaware Bay after Sir Thomas West, Baron De La Warr (or Delaware), who was Virginia’s colonial governor. The Swedes set up a colony and trading post at Fort Christina in the northern part of Delaware. Today, Fort Christina is called Wilmington. In 1651, the Dutch reclaimed the area and built a fort near present-day New Castle. The original settlers of the Delaware colony were mainly Quakers. A Quaker is someone who is dedicated to peaceful ways of living and does not follow set forms of faith. After being settled by the Quakers, the control of Delaware was fought over by the Dutch and the English.

In 1655, the Dutch took over and Delaware became part of New Netherland (or New York). After William Penn was granted the land that became Pennsylvania in 1682, he persuaded the Duke of York to lease him the western shore of Delaware Bay so that his colony could have an outlet to the sea. The Duke agreed and Penn’s original charter included the northern sections of present-day Delaware, which became known as “The Lower Counties on the Delaware.” Delaware became part of the Pennsylvania colony in 1682, where it stayed even though it established its own government in 1704. The Delaware colonists had survived on fish, berries, and root vegetables, like potatoes. They also hunted for bear, deer, rabbit, squirrel, duck, geese, and turkey. On December 7, 1787, Delaware became the first colony to join the United States.