Colonial America

The Puritans were the first colonists to come to Boston. Across the ocean in England, everyone had to practice the religion of the Church of England. The Puritans were unhappy with this church, and they wanted to change it and practice their religion differently. The King of England was in charge of the church and the government. If the Puritans didn’t obey the church, they would have been in danger. In 1630, about 1,000 Puritans set sail for America, looking for a place where they could have religious freedom. They set up the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which included parts of other present-day states like Maine.

Based on the passage, what does it mean if people have religious freedom?

• They are in charge of both the church and the government in their country.

• They can practice their religion the way they want without danger.

• They get in trouble for practicing their religion the way they want.

• They set sail across the ocean and set up a colony.

Winters in New England were cold and harsh, and the soil was rocky. Because of the harsh climate and difficult growing conditions, farmers in New England couldn’t grow enough crops to sell for money. However, the New England colonies were covered in forests, and the water off the coast was full of fish. So instead, colonists fished and hunted whales. They used the lumber from the trees to build ships. New England became a major center for trading, buying and selling products. In the port city of Boston, ships came and left carrying goods. The New England colonies sold goods to the other colony regions and to England.

According to the passage, farming didn’t become the main way of making money in the New England colonies because

• farming is not possible in port cities.

• people were too busy building ships.

• the climate was too harsh.

• there was too much lumber.

A slave is someone who is owned by another person and forced to work for them for no pay. During colonial times, Europeans and Americans kidnapped people from Africa. They forced these people to work as slaves in the colonies. In the New England colonies, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island had the most slaves. Slaves in New England were owned mostly by ministers, doctors and merchants, people who were involved in trade. They worked in houses and did other skilled jobs like shipbuilding. Not all black people in New England were enslaved. Some won their freedom by serving their masters for a certain number of years. However, free blacks still had a lower status than white people.

According to the passage, slaves in the New England colonies

• were allowed to return to Africa.

• all lived in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

• worked as ministers, doctors and merchants.

• were not paid for the work they did.

In the Middle colonies, the climate was warmer, and the soil was better for farming than it was in New England. Colonists could grow more crops and sell them. Farmers stockpiled wheat and grains like barley, oats and rye. Because of the large supply of grains, the Middle colonies earned the nickname “the breadbasket.” In the Middle colonies, iron, paper, textiles (cloth and fabric) and glass were also produced in factories. Merchants bought and sold goods. Artisans were skilled at making things by hand. They included blacksmiths, who worked with iron, silversmiths and shoemakers.

What is the main purpose of this passage?

• to explain that some of the colonies had nicknames

• to describe how factories worked in the Middle colonies

• to describe how goods were were grown, produced, or sold

• to explain that the climate in the Middle colonies was warmer than the climate in the New England colonies

The Southern colonies’ rich soil and warm climate made them good for growing crops. As a result, the Southern economy was almost completely based on farming. An economy is a system for producing, buying and selling goods and services. In the Southern colonies, farmers could produce many more crops than they needed for their families. They could sell these crops to make a lot of money. These cash crops were grown on large farms called plantations. They included cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar cane and indigo.

Based on the passage, what is true about the Southern colonies?

• Religion affected their economy.

• The climate affected their economy.

• Small farms there didn’t produce any cash crops.

• Cash crops were not a big part of their economy.

Southern plantations relied on the work of African and African-American slaves. There were many more slaves in the Southern colonies than there were in the New England and Middle colonies. By 1750, slaves made up almost half of the population of the Southern colonies. Slaves worked long hours in the hot fields harvesting cash crops, powering the Southern economy. They were not paid for their labor. If they made a small mistake, they were often beaten and whipped by the overseer, the person watching over the slaves’ work. When slaves had children, these children were born enslaved. It was also illegal for slaves to learn to read and write. The first slaves arrived in the colonies in 1619, and slavery didn’t end until almost 250 years later.

Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

• Types of Plantations

• The Economy of the Southern Colonies

• Slavery in the Southern Colonies

• How Slavery Ended

At the , the ship will pick up new cargo

a territory that is governed by another country.

• factory

• plantation

• colony

He grew up on a large where cotton grew

the state, condition or practice of owning or being owned by another person.