The Middle Colonies were part of the thirteen colonies that would eventually become the United States of America. Before being divided into Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, the region of the Middle Colonies was known as New Netherlands. It today’s day and age this region when the colonies would have been is known only as the Mid-Atlantic States. The Middle Colonies made for a really unique environment for the time. The region was made up of non-English European settlers, most of which were German and Dutch and English settlers made up the smallest minority. However the population of the Middle Colonies in the eighteenth century grew faster than even New England or the Southern Colonies.
Of the three sections of colonial America, the Middle Colonies had the highest concentration of churches in relation to the population. The area had perhaps the highest ratio of churches to people as well as an extremely elective group of different religions for the time. For example, a few of the different types of religions that were practiced throughout the Middle Colonies includes Dutch Mennonites, Dutch Calvinists, French Huguenots, Portuguese Jews, and German Baptists. However with pressures of the Protestant Reformation, most of these religions were forced to join larger, more established churches. For example, most of the religions mentioned above eventually would join congregations of Dutch Reformed, Quakers, Anglicans, and Lutherans. This is one of the biggest reasons that this time period is looked at as being a significant apart of America’s religious history. It is also the reason that so many collectors are interested in pieces from these times. It is also the reason that we had decided to put all of this information together in the first place.