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Colonial America (1492-1765)

The New England Colonies

The New England Colonies
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.55

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    hilly, self-sufficient, worshipers, lasting, teaching, viewer, separation, spars, provided, reeling, seafood, colonial, landscape, especially, waterproof, export
     content words:    United States, New England, When European, Other New Englanders, New Englanders, For New England, Rhode Island

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The New England Colonies
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     New England is a hilly, rocky place. It is situated along the northeast coast of the United States. The New England landscape was formed by glaciers millions of years ago. When European colonists arrived in New England, their first view of their new land would have been the sight of dense forests. When they began to settle in the 1600's, they had to develop ways of life suited to the landscape.
 
2     Towns grew up along the coast, where ships could bring more settlers, deliver supplies, and load up with export goods. In each town, craftsmen worked at their trades, providing necessities for the colonists and goods for export. Many of them worked in the shipbuilding industry, providing planks for building ships, spars to hold the ships' sails, and pitch for making the ships waterproof. Other New Englanders fished for a living, reeling in not only oysters, lobsters, crabs, and fish to eat, but money from the export of seafood as well.
 
3     Colonists had to grow their own food, and so they also had small farms. Many people lived and worked in town and also grew crops or raised a few animals on a small farm just outside of town. New Englanders did not live on large, independent farms like settlers in the middle and southern colonies because they did not have either flat land or rich soil.

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