But one of the biggest strengths of the Middle Colonies lay in the ability of its governors to not be narrow-minded bigots. The intolerance of the New England Puritans drove many innovative thinkers out of its colonies. Too bad for them. To their credit the governors of the Middle Colonies had the foresight  to promote their colonies as a haven for religious freedom and tolerance. This had the intended affect of attracting settlers from every corner of Western Europe. Each of which came with their own unique perspectives and skills that when they came together created an industrial powerhouse unseen anywhere else in colonial America. 

The Middle Colonies became a cultural stew that left its mark on colonial America. The Swedes introduced the log cabin, the Germans bred giant horses and created the prairie schooner-- a wagon so large that it was named after a ship. The Continental Europeans had different methods of farming than did the English. The New Englanders had their village green and the Virginians just let the hogs and cows run wild through the woods. The Germans brought the concept of the barn to the Middle Colonies where they settled. You might even say that colonial life was pretty much a community affair. When a house needed to be built, or a barn raised, a field planted the community would pitch in and make it a festival.

To the land starved Europeans,  it was worth risking malaria, explosive diarrhea and bear attacks to get a piece of the American Dream. After all land meant wealth and back in Old England only 20% of the people owned land, while the rest were tenant farmers paying high rents to greedy landlords. In the New World, farming may be hard work but at least it was your hard work. Farming, once a job fit for peasants, became a respectable career move made by hardworking, honest people. Thomas Jefferson once quipped that those who ‘labor in the earth are the chosen people of God’. How much better of an endorsement could a farmer hope to get?



Being isolated from the rest of the world changed the way colonists bought and sold goods. Although English pounds and shillings were used to buy their imports, the colonial economy was more about barter than cold, hard cash.  Eventually the colonies would print their own money but in the early days the most common way of paying the doctor or buying a new dress was to barter for it. Bartering worked like this: you had a surplus of eggs (everyone loves eggs) so you agree to pay Doc Jones in eggs for treating your kid's sniffles.  Often farmers couldn't do all the work themselves (even with 8 kids). So, the whole community came to pitch in during big events like a barn raising or harvest time. Of course, it was expected that you would show up when a neighbor needed your help (another example of the barter system in action).