What were the Thirteen Colonies?
Q: What were the Thirteen Colonies?
A: The Thirteen Colonies were colonies in British North America located on the Eastern Seaboard of what is now the United States.
Q: Why did people found these colonies?
A: People founded these colonies for a variety of reasons, such as to make money from new goods not available in Europe, to find religious freedom or just to start anew, and to gain control and change things they didn't like about England.
Q: When was the first colony established?
A: The first colony was Virginia, which was established in 1607 at Jamestown.
Q: What was the last colony of the thirteen to be started?
A: The last colony of the thirteen to be started was Georgia in 1732.
Q: How are the colonies typically divided into groups?
A: The colonies are often divided into three groups - New England (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut), Middle Colonies (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware) and South (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia).
Q: What activities did colonists focus on in New England?
A: In New England colonists focused on small farming activities such as fishing, forestry (trees and lumber), shipping and small industry.
Q: How did plantations become farmed initially? A: Plantations were initially farmed by indentured servants who would work for a period of years in return for their passage to America and land. Later they were replaced by slaves.
