CHAPTER 1 GROWING UP IN A NEW WORLD In September 1620 a small wooden ship called the Mayflower set off from England with 102 people on board Among them were more than 30 children After 66 days of storms and seasickness the Mayflower finally reached North America The travelers also known as Pilgrims landed in what later became the state of Massachusetts They named their settlement Plymouth after the town they had left in England Rough waves caused one Mayflower traveler to fall overboard during a storm 5
Nearly half of the people who traveled on the Mayflower died during the first winter Children helped their families survive by gathering wood and berries fetching water and tending to the sick They also helped cook and clean The Pilgrims were not alone in the New World They encountered American Indians whose tribes had lived on the land for more than 10,000 years As the settlers took over more land conflict arose between the two groups often ending in violence For the next 150 years more Europeans settled in the American colonies Many white colonists brought enslaved black people from Africa The children of enslaved people were also forced into slavery By 1770 more than two million people lived in Great Britain’s American colonies These included the New England Colonies the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies 6
Throughout the years children played a key role in the growth of the colonies Their children and their children’s children would become the future generations of America BRITISH COLONIES IN THE EARLY 1770s RUPERT’S LAND Hudson’s Bay Company of PROVINCE QUEBEC Claimed by New York and New Hampshire NEW YORK NOVA SCOTIA NEW HAMPSHIRE MASSACHUSETTS RHODE ISLAND CONNECTICUT ATLANTIC OCEAN PENNSYLVANIA NEW JERSEY MARYLAND DELAWARE VIRGINIA NORTH CAROLINA W N S E INDIAN RESERVE SOUTH CAROLINA GEORGIA New England Middle Colonies Southern Colonies 7
