First colony was Virginia and started in 1607 at Jamestown. The colonies declared independence from Britain in 1776 during the American Revolution.

• First colony was Virginia and started in 1607 at Jamestown.• The colonies declared independence

from Britain in 1776 during the American Revolution.

• Many northern colonists came to the New World in search of a separation of government and the Church

• The middle colonies attracted the most diverse number of European ethnic groups-Dutch, English, French, German, Swedish, and Welsh

• Over a hundred travelers embarked on the voyage of the Mayflower in September 1620.

• The Mayflower voyage took about two months

• The winter of 1609 to 1610 was called the starving time for the Jamestown settlers. They suffered food shortages.

• Pilgrims moved the cannon from the Mayflower and placed it on a hill in Plymouth.

• MAYFLOWER COMPACT- Pilgrims decided that they would rule themselves, based on majority rule of the townsmen.

• There were over 300 Native American nations, speaking 143 different languages living in North America when the colonists arrived.

• Native Americans traded deerskin and beaver pelts in return for metal products and clothing made by the colonists

• Some Native Americans used war paint when fighting. The warriors painted their bodies with bear fat and mixed it with read coloring. Europeans saw them and called them “red men.”

• Colonists of the 1600s learned to make the white birch bark canoes from the Native Americans

Clothing• Wore capes and mittens

Clothing

• Boys and girls wore dresses

Clothing

• Babies sometimes wore padded pudding caps much like crash helmets to protect their heads

• Iroquois Native Americans had a Great Council. Benjamin Franklin observed a council meeting to learn from their form of government.

• In New England, house-raisings were popular. A group of men and boys built an entire house in one day.

• Glass windows were extremely expensive and rare.

• It was common for wooden homes to burn down every few years. The family would locate the nails from the burned down house and use them to build a new one.

• Wealthy southern plantation owners had their homes built out of expensive brick rather than wood.

• Early colonial homes did not have a bathroom. Colonists used outhouses. In the winter they used pots that had to be emptied daily.

• In the 1600s colonists in Delaware were the first to build log cabins.

• Center of a village was a village green. It was a common space where children played, cattle grazed, and colonists gathered to hear news.