Colonial life in America

By the year 1733 the English owned thirteen separate colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America.

In the far north was the New England group, centered on Massachusetts. Most people were small farmers or craftsmen. Other New Englanders depended on the sea for a living. Boston and other coastal towns grew into busy ports. Their prosperity depended on trade.

The nearest colonies to the south of New England were called the Middle Colonies. The biggest were New York and Pennsylvania. As in New England, most of their people lived by farming. But in the cities of New York and Philadelphia there were growing numbers of craftsmen and merchants. Philadelphia was the capital of Pennsylvania.

The Southern Colonies of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia formed the third group. People were landowners and farmed large plantations. They lived in fine houses with wide cool verandahs from which they could look out over their fields of tobacco or cotton. Most of the work was made by black slaves.

All the English colonies In America shared a tradition of representative government.

Each colony had its own government. At the head of this government was a governor, chosen in most cases by the English king. To rule effectively, these governors depended upon the cooperation of assemblies elected by the colonists.

Inmost of the colonies all white males, who owned some land had the right to vote.

vocabulary

2. read these phrases aloud. find the sentences with these phrases in the text. translate them into russian.

e) thirteen separate colonies; to live by farming and crafts; to depend on sea for a living; to trade with the west indies; to grow into busy ports; fertile river valleys; to farm large plantations.