In this lecture, Professor Totten argues the Middle Colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were multi-ethnic and multi-racial societies that practiced more religious and cultural toleration than the Chesapeake or New England. New York began as a Dutch colony, New Netherland, which had relatively positive relations with nearby native tribes. In addition, women had more rights than in English colonies, as they could obtain divorces, own property, and give testimony in court. New Sweden, a Swedish colonial project, was absorbed by New Netherland, Eventually, the English captured the capital of New Netherland, New Amsterdam, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. As a result, the English removed many of the rights enjoyed by women and reinforced slavery in the colony.

Pennsylvania, by contrast, was a proprietary colony run by William Penn and his descendants. This colony differed from others, due to its large population of Quakers, a protestant sect that stressed equality and pacifism. Due to the middle-class origins of many Quakers, the colony quickly prospered. New Jersey and Delaware had large populations of Scottish and western European settlers and had relatively small economies, which were overshadowed by the more powerful New York and Pennsylvania. Thus, the Middle Colonies had eclectic ethnic, racial, and religious populations that were relatively tolerated, compared to the Anglican South and the Puritan North.

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