Free
In 1776, Britain had 13 American colonies. Actually, Britain had more colonies than that.
It had 14 mainland colonies: the angry 13 plus Canada. It also had several Caribbean colonies. About 2 million colonists lived along the Atlantic coast. If you had traveled through these colonies in the early 1770s, you would have had a hard time finding people who called themselves Americans. Most colonists thought of themselves as Virginians or Pennsylvanians or New Yorkers. That began to change as the colonists became unhappier with Britain. As they united to fight their ruler, the colonists put aside their differences. They started to think of themselves as Americans.
▲ The 13 colonies are often split into three groups: New England, Middle, and Southern. People in each of these groups often had more in common with each other than they did with colonists in other parts of British America. That’s because they shared the same weather, land, and ways to make a living.
In 1776, only one out of ten colonists lived in a city or town. The main colonial cities were ports. They shipped American products to Britain and the West Indies. The biggest cities were Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Charleston, and Newport in Rhode Island. Cities were places where people exchanged news and ideas. Men went to taverns. That’s where they’d drink, read newspapers, and talk politics. Women weren’t welcome in taverns. So they met in churchyards and homes to talk about the latest news. ▶
◀ Some colonists came from other parts of Europe, but most came from England. They still had strong ties to their home country. They shared many of the religious beliefs, customs, and ideas of people back home. The rich filled their homes with furniture and fine china ordered from England. They bought clothes from England and France. Or they had colonial tailors copy the latest European fashions. They also copied the latest English and French hairstyles.
◀ Country farmers didn’t have time or money for European fashions. The farm wife shown here uses a wooden bowl to help her cut her husband’s hair. Her children wait in line for their turn.
▲ New England winters are long. There’s lots of ice and snow. Many New England colonists had small farms. They grew just enough food to feed their families. Some of the colonists on the Atlantic coast fished for a living. New Englanders also took wood from the huge forests. They used it to build ships, which they sold. They also sailed these ships to trade with other colonies, Britain, and the West Indies.
◀ The Southern colonies had warm weather and good soil. That made them perfect for farming. Some rich families in the South owned huge farms. These were called plantations. In Virginia, tobacco was the main crop. In South Carolina and Georgia, the key crops were rice and indigo (a plant that makes a blue dye). On these plantations, enslaved Africans did the hard work. They cleared the land. They also planted and harvested crops. Slavery was legal everywhere. But the Southern colonies had more slaves than any other place in British America did.
