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For details on each specific colony, see Delaware Colony, Province of New Jersey, Province of New York, and Province of Pennsylvania.
The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of New York, Pennsylvania, the three counties of Delaware, and Maryland were characterized by a large degree of diversity, both religious, political, economic, and ethnic.
For details on each specific colony, see Province of Georgia, Province of Maryland, Province of North Carolina, Province of South Carolina, and Virginia Colony.
The Southern Colonies are Georgia, the two Carolinas and Virginia, with the sometime inclusion of Maryland (always a borderland), which is sometimes grouped with the Middle Colonies.
The first attempted settlement of the South by England was the Province of Carolina. A group of English Lords Proprietors , hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like that of Jamestown, obtained a royal charter to the Carolinas. Their venture was initially a failure for the simple reason that there was no incentive for emigration to the south. However, eventually the lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by John West . The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at what was to become Charleston (originally Charles Town for Charles II of England), thus beginning the European history of the southern United States.
At first, the Carolinas were politically divided. Its ethnic makeup included the original settlers, a group of rich, slave-owning British settlers from the island of Barbados, and a French-speaking community. Trying to control all of these factions was the colonial governor appointed by the lords of the Carolinas. Eventually, these factions rose up against the governor and the Carolinas became a royal colony.
Georgia was established on strict moralistic principles. Slavery was forbidden, as was alcohol and other forms of "immorality." However, the reality of the colony was far from ideal. The colonists were unhappy about the puritanical lifestyle, and complained that their colony could not compete economically with the Carolina rice plantations. Georgia initially failed to prosper, but once the restrictions were lifted it became as prosperous as the Carolinas.
Although each of the British colonies was strikingly different from the others, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries several events and trends took place that brought them together in various ways and to various degrees. Some of these sprung from their common roots as part of the British Empire - others served to distance them from Britain and led to the American Revolution.
In 1754, these trends were manifested in the Albany Congress, where Benjamin Franklin proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King George II, it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification.
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