The Middle Colonies

Abstract

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware were such a diverse group of colonies compared with those in New England and the Chesapeake that some historians have denied that they form an entity. To them, the term ‘middle colonies’ is a mere geographical expression. Certainly, there were great political and social differences between them. Although they all started as proprietary colonies, New York became a Crown colony on the accession of James II in 1685, to be followed by New Jersey in 1702. In this respect Pennsylvania and the three lower counties which became Delaware had more in common with Maryland, which like them had a single proprietor for most of the colonial period. In religion too they were distinct. Delaware was mainly Anglican, Pennsylvania, at least among its elite, largely Quaker, as was West Jersey, while East Jersey became predominantly Presbyterian. New York had a polyglot mixture of faiths, the Dutch Reformed Church appealing to the original settlers and their descendants who continued to speak Dutch until well into the next century. But by then, Pennsylvania too had a significant German-speaking population which attended Mennonite and Moravian churches. Unlike New England and the Chesapeake regions, there was no established Church in the middle colonies. Perhaps their diversity was what in the end distinguished them as a group from the northern and southern colonies.