There were thirteen American colonies, and they all started in different time periods for different reasons. Three of the thirteen colonies were Virginia, Massachusetts, and Georgia.
Jamestown, Virginia is the first colony. In 1607, the English came to Virginia looking for gold or new business to bring back to England. Unfortunately, there was no gold in Jamestown. The only thing the English brought with them were chemical kits for testing gold. Food and survival quickly became a problem. People were starving. One man even considered eating his pregnant wife. The Native Americans taught them how to plant corn and fertilize the soil by using fish, so the English could eventually turn the starving town into a boom town by growing the cash crop, tobacco.
On 1620, a group of religious dissenters were on the Mayflower. They floated over the Atlantic Ocean to Plymouth, Massachusetts for religious freedom. They decided not to go back to England, so they bought their live stocks and family to start a new life. Life was tough for the first winter, many people had died. This New England colony became a center of trade, ship building, and fishing.
Over a century later in 1732, a member of the English Parliament, James Oglethorpe, asked the King to let the English poor start a new life in the colony of Georgia. These English poor were often debtors and not strictly criminals. They did not want to stay in prison. James Oglethorpe named the colony, Georgia in honor of the King. This colony became a southern plantation colony with many African slaves coming to produce cash crops such as cotton.
All thirteen American colonies took several years to come together a confederation . Settlers brought their beliefs with them to develope the colonies differently. The United States has always had different people and different regions but these people are all looking for the same basic freedoms.
