What was the population of the English colonies?

The population of the English colonies surged upward during the first three-quarters of the eighteenth century. Europeans put ever-increasing amounts of land under cultivation, and British North America became a reasonably prosperous node on international trade routes. Though the colonies were controlled by England, the people pouring into them were by no means all English. Indeed, the American colonies on the eve of the Revolution contained an extremely diverse population, many of whom were still speaking their own native languages. This module contains two maps. The first depicts the spread of population inland from the seaboard and down the Appalachian valleys. The second depicts the location of major ethnic and racial groups in early America.

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During the first three quarters of the eighteenth century, the English colonies of North America grew rapidly. By 1780, Philadelphia was larger than any other city in the English-speaking world except London (though many of Philadelphia's citizens actually spoke German). The area of permanent European settlement was pushed quite rapidly from the seacoast to the trans-Appalachian interior. And that growing population was remarkably diverse. Ethnic groups which had fought each other for centuries in Europe settled with minimal friction into various parts of British North America. Revolutionary leaders in the English colonies would soon select as their national motto the phrase "e pluribus unum"—from the many, one—from diversity, unity. Whether the revolutionary leaders could turn that hopeful phrase into actual fact was a different matter, but the phrase was certainly appropriate to the historical realities of the day.

• Massachusetts. Power of the mother country over its faraway territories was a defining issue for the British Atlantic colonists in the 1700s. The freedom from strict English control they had enjoyed in the 1600s and had come to assume narrowed as the colonies' economic value became more apparent to the Crown. Did the "privileges of Englishmen . . . follow them to the end of the World"? The Colonists: YES. England: NO. In Massachusetts, the animosity between the Puritan leaders and their royal governor, Joseph Dudley, led to a prose feud of accusations and rebuttals, recall petitions and royal hearings. Here we read selections from a 1707 pamphlet (probably written by Cotton Mather, the famed Puritan minister), accusing the governor of abuse of power, juxtaposed with the governor's rebuttal in 1708. Despite the persistent and passionate campaign of the colonists, Dudley was not recalled by the Crown and served as governor until 1715. Read the Mather pamphlet along with his 1689 Declaration of Grievances against the then-governor Andros in the POWER section of the toolbox American Beginnings.
  
  • - Cotton Mather, A Memorial on the Present Deplorable State of New-England, with the many Disadvantages it lies under, by the Male-Administration of their Present Governor, Joseph Dudley, 1707, excerpts.
  • - Joseph Dudley, A Modest Inquiry into the Grounds and Occasions of the Late Pamphlet Entitled A Memorial of the Deplorable State of New-England, 1708, excerpts.
  
  
• Connecticut. While Massachusetts remained a homogenous colony of English settlers, other colonies became more diverse as German, Scot, Irish, Dutch, and French immigrants arrived by the thousands, a development often noted in colonists' diaries and travel journals. In 1704, a Boston widow named Sarah Kemble Knight began a five-month roundtrip journey to New York to complete some family business after a cousin's death. She traveled alone, staying in inns along the route, and employing local men as guides. (This was not 2004, but 1704, and Knight's now famous journey was remarkable for its time.) In these excerpts from her travel journal, Knight describes the colony of Connecticut, emphasizing the diversity and prosperity of its white inhabitants: "No one that can and will be diligent in this place need fear poverty, nor the want of food and raiment." Read Kemble's description along with the diary of a Connecticut farmer in the PERMANENCE section of the toolbox American Beginnings.
  
  • - Sarah Kemble Knight, Journal: October 1704 - March 1705; first published in 1825 (ed., Thomas Dwight), excerpts.
  
  
• New York. John Miller, an Englishman and an Episcopal minister, gained his insight into the New York colony while serving as chaplain to the English soldiers stationed there in the 1690s. In his lengthy report to the Bishop of London, Miller surveys the colony's climate, resources, settlements, population, commerce, and military fortifications. Noting the colony's weaknesses, he offers proposals for the moral and religious improvement of the colonists, the conversion of the Indians, and the "subduing & resettlement" (i.e., invasion) of French Canada. Read his report along with the 1687 report of the New York governor in the PERMANENCE section of the toolbox American Beginnings.
  
  • - John Miller, A Description of the Province and City of New York (also known as New York Considered and Improved), 1695, excerpts.
  
  
• Pennsylvania. Francis Daniel Pastorius, founder of the first German settlement in Pennsylvania (1683), wrote several accounts of the colony to persuade his countrymen in Europe to emigrate. He surveys the history, resources, government, inhabitants (settlers and Indians), farming, and commerce of Pennsylvania, emphasizing its inevitable prosperity and progress. "It is truly a matter for amazement," he exclaims, "how quickly, by the blessing of God, it advances, and from day to day grows perceptibly." Read his account along with the 1692 poem on Pennsylvania's success in the PERMANENCE section of the toolbox American Beginnings.
  
  • - Francis Daniel Pastorius, Circumstantial Geographical Description of the Lately Discovered Province of Pennsylvania, Situated in the Farthest Limits of America, in the Western World, 1700, excerpts.
  
  
• Virginia. An abundance of publications titled "The Present State of [colony name]" appeared in our colonial history. Some disappeared from notice after one printing, while others went through multiple printings and are often cited today. One of the latter is Robert Beverley's The History and Present State of Virginia (1705). Son of a prominent Virginia plantation owner, Beverley served as a Virginia legislator and official before writing his "status report" on the colony to refute errors in an Englishman's account. In these excerpts, he combines lavish praise of the colony's growth and potential with acerbic criticism of the governor's arrogance and the settlers' "slothful indolence." Read his account along with the governor's 1663 status report on Virginia in the PERMANENCE section of the toolbox American Beginnings.
  
  • - Robert Beverley, Jr., The History and Present State of Virginia, 1705, excerpts.
  
  
• Carolina. In 1690 the colony of "Carolina" included all the land south of Virginia and north of Spanish Florida (territory later divided into North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia). It had been settled only two decades earlier by English planters from the Caribbean island of Barbados, who brought with them African slaves and an entrenched slave culture. Here we read two viewpoints on Carolina's prospects—one from an English official who lauds the commercial potential of the colony, and one from a settler who employs a question-and-answer format to encourage other English farmers to emigrate. (Only the English official addresses the ever-present threat of the Spanish to the south and the French and Indians to the west.) Read these texts along with the Carolina documents from 1666 and 1682 in the PERMANENCE section of the toolbox American Beginnings.
  
  • - Edward Randolph (Surveyor-General of His Majesty's Customs for North America), Letter to the English Board of Trade and Plantations, 1699, excerpts.
    
  • - John Norris, Profitable Advice for Rich and Poor . . . Containing a Description, or True Relation, of South Carolina, An English Plantation, or Colony, in America, 1712, excerpts.
  
  

Listing the colonies as of 1690 reveals how fluid were the boundaries and political dynamics of the British Atlantic colonies. In that year, the colonies that would become the United States of America 86 years later were:

• - Massachusetts Bay, including Maine, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia. (New Hampshire became a separate colony in 1691; Nova Scotia in 1696.)
• - Connecticut
• - Rhode Island
• - New York
• - Pennsylvania (including Delaware)
• - East Jersey
• - West Jersey
• - Maryland
• - Virginia
• - Carolina (including what became North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia).