This article describes the challenges that colonists faced and the values they held as they settled on unfamiliar land.

Colonial settlers came to America for many reasons. Some came for religious
freedom. Some came to make money. They settled into 13 colonies, areas
that are now the states known as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Maryland, Georgia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware. There were
other scattered colonies like St. Augustine in what is now known as
Florida.
In the early days of the colonial period, the settlers did not know
how to live in the wilderness, and they faced many hardships. In Massachusetts,
for example, the Plymouth settlers, spent most of their first winter
(1620–21) on board the Mayflower. The following winter, the Pilgrims
lived on land but in wigwams and sailcloth tents. Many were sick and
all were hungry. Nearly one-quarter of them died before a ship from
England brought fresh supplies. You can learn more about life at Plymouth
by visiting The
First Thanksgiving.
In time, the colonists learned how to live in the
wilderness — through trial and error and the help of some of
the more friendly Native American tribes. By the 1700s, small cities and
towns were well established. The colonists slowly developed their own
customs and lifestyles. Eventually they began to feel that this new land
was now their true home.
Life in colonial America centered around the family. Most people
worked, played, learned, and worshiped at home. A large family was
necessary in colonial days to get all the work done. The father was
considered the head of the household. He made all of the decisions
concerning their families and earned money through farming and jobs
outside the home. Women worked in the home, raising the children,
preparing the meals, sewing clothes, preserving food for the winter,
scrubbing laundry, fetching water, and stoking fires.
Most children in early colonial times never saw the inside of a schoolhouse.
Instead, colonial children usually learned about the adult world by
doing things the way their parents did. But, just because they didn't
go to school, their lives were not easy. Children were expected to
help with a share of the family's work. Boys helped their fathers
and girls did chores at home. By a time a girl was four she could
knit stockings! Even with all the work they did, colonial children
still found time to have fun. They cared for their pets, played with
dolls, shot marbles, pitched pennies, and went fishing. They also
played tag, stickball, and blindman's buff. By the time they had reached
age 14, most children were already considered adults. Boys would soon
take up their father's trade or leave home to become an apprentice.
Girls learned to manage a house and were expected to marry young,
probably by the time they were 16 and surely before they were 20.
A child's life in colonial America would differ greatly, depending
on the time and place in which the child lived. Learn about the range
of experiences in colonial America from the diaries of Patience Whipple
(Plymouth, 1620) and Catherine Carey Logan (Pennsylvania, 1963).
Colonial Period Timeline
1565: St. Augustine is founded by the Spanish.
1607: Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North
America, is established in Virginia.
1620: Pilgrims reach Plymouth, Massachusetts, aboard the Mayflower;
"Mayflower Compact" adopted.
1626: Manhattan Island sold by Indians to New Amsterdam colony.

1638: Swedish settlers establish colony of New Sweden in Delaware.

1681: William Penn receives charter for colony that becomes
Pennsylvania.
1692: Salem, Massachusetts, trials sentence 20 "witches"
to death.
1718: New Orleans founded by French.
1733: Georgia, last of original 13 colonies, founded by James
Oglethorpe.