Busy Farms and Seaports

1. Busy Farms and Seaports Unit 3, Chapter 6, Lesson 3 Pages 240 – 245

2. OBJECTIVES • Explain why people chose to settle in the Middle Colonies • Understand the types of jobs and businesses that people had in the Middle Colonies

3. RICH FARMLANDS • Middle Colonies  very fertile soil • Most people made their living by farming • New England Colonies  soil is rocky, not as good for farming

4. Crops, Livestock, & Trade • Main Crops: Wheat, Corn, and Rye • Dairy cows & Pigs also abundant in the Middle Colonies • Farmers – traveled to market towns • Sell or trade livestock • Gristmill – ground grain to flour

5. Port City • Merchants at merchant towns took the good they bought from farmers to port cites • Port cities were major trade centers in the Middle Colonies • Prosperity – economic success, depended on port cities

6. New York • NYC – most important trade city • Hudson River • Farmers, fur traders, and lumber workers would float goods down the river to NYC • 1664 – only 30 ships each year • 1750 – 600 ships each year • 2nd busiest port in the English colonies

7. Philadelphia • The busiest port • Built along the Delaware River • Farmers, merchants, & traders moved to Philadelphia • Goods sent down Delaware River to the port • From Philadelphia goods sailed down to Delaware Bay and then across the Atlantic

8. Exports and Imports • Exports: same as New England (furs, meat, lumber), but they also exported wheat and grains • Remember: EXPORT = EXIT from the Colonies to another location • Imports(from England): Furniture, tea, gunpowder, medicines, metals, and slaves

9. Colonial Jobs • Farming • Shipping • Skilled trades: iron working • Artisans – craft workers – most came as indentured servants

10. Making Goods • Artisans used raw materials to make goods

11. BLACKSMITHS • USED IRON TO FORM HORSESHOES AND TOOLS

12. COOPERS • MADE BARRELS OUT OF WOOD

13. CARPENTERS • USED WOOD TO BUILD HOUSES AND SHIPS

14. BRICKLAYERS • WORKED WITH STONE AND CLAY TO PAVE STREETS AND RAISE BUILDINGS

15. ARTISANS DEPENDING ON FARMING • BAKERS • BUTCHERS • FLOUR MILLERS • SOAP MAKERS

16. DRESSMAKERS & TAILORS • USED WOOL, LINEN, AND COTTON TO MAKE CLOTHING

17. TANNERS • TURNED ANIMAL SKIN INTO LEATHER

18. COBBLERS • MADE SHOES

19. Learning a Trade • Rich families went to college to be lawyers, bankers, or ministers • Skill Artisan work not taught in college • Apprentice – lived and worked with an artisan & his family for several years to learn a skill • Journeyman then a Master • Artisan jobs practiced by men

20. Women • Little work outside the home • Most not allowed to own property or business • Once married, husband became owner of everything she had • If the husband died, a wife would take over husbands business

21. How did people in the Middle Colonies learn to do skilled jobs? • They became apprentices, living and working with artisans to learn skills. They then became journeyman and finally masters.

22. What is a grist mill? • A place to ground grain into flour