by Olivia

     Hundreds of years ago people came from all over the world to America to find a new life. They settled in colonies which are now the United States. In the 1600's, several explorers came to what is now known as New Hampshire.

     Martin Pring came to the area in 1603.  He was looking for a shortcut across America to Asia.  He hoped to find sassafras trees to make tea.  Although Martin Pring came to the area first, it was Captain John Smith who officially claimed New Hampshire for England.

      The Alonquian Indians lived in villages of 50 to 100 people. The Indians introduced the settlers to food like succotash and popcorn.  When winter came they taught the settlers how to make snowshoes with branches and strips of leather. They taught them how to pack meat. in snow to preserve it, too

       The land was rocky and had lot of trees.  The people had to move the rocks so they could plant food.  They had to chop down the trees to have more room to plant.  They made rock walls out of the rocks they had.  Some of the walls are still standing today.  The settlers grew corn, beans, and pumpkins.  They raised sheep, cows, chickens, and pigs.  They made money by fishing and hunting.  They sent huge amounts of fish to Europe each year.  They sent beaver furs to Europe to be made into hats and coats.

     New Hampshire had a lot of trees so they had to ship lumber to Europe.  The forests in England were almost gone.  The best trees were white pines.  They were straight and tall and perfect to make into masts for ships.  Some white pines were two hundred feet tall. The "mast pines" were saved for England.  If a colonist cut down one of the king's pine trees, he or she would be arrested.

     Each town in New Hampshire built a meeting house.  It was used for all day church services on Sunday and was also where men decided which way the town would be run.  Town meetings still happen in New Hampshire today.

     In 1641, Massachusetts annexed New Hampshire.  England turned New Hampshire into a Royal colony in 1679. They were governed by someone chosen by the King.

     When the colonists were farming and fishing and sending children to school, the English and the French were fighting over colonies.  Each group wanted to rule the land.  Both wanted the Indians to fight on their side.  The Indians could see the English had come to stay.  Most of the French had come to hunt and trade.  The English wanted to build towns that took away land from the Indians. Because of this the Indians sided with the French.  The fighting was called the French and Indian Wars.  They lasted seventy-four years and thousands of colonists and Indians were killed.  In the end, the English won and got to stay.  The French lost and went home.  The Indians has to move farther and farther into the wilderness.

     The King of England wanted the colonists to help pay for the The French and Indian Wars so he charged the colonists more taxes.  The colonists of New Hampshire were already upset that the King was taking all of their best trees to build ships.  Taxes on tea and newspaper caused them to become angrier.  Some colonists didn't want to pay the taxes.  English soldiers, called Redcoats, came to make colonist pay taxes.  In 1774, representatives from all of the colonies went to Philadelphia for two months to try to find a solution to their problems with the King.  They talked about revolution, which means fighting for their independence from England.

     The colonists needed gunpowder to fight a war against England.  But England stopped shipping gunpowder over to the colonies.  There was a fort in New Castle that had a lot.  In December 1774, four hundred colonists from New Hampshire gathered around Fort William and Mary and took hundreds of barrels of gunpowder.  When the Revolutionary War began in April 1775, the colonists in New Hampshire sent weapons and five thousand men to help.  Ships were built for the war in Portsmouth and three thousand men left to fight the English.  Captain John Paul Jones was called the Father of the American Navy.  His ship was the first to fly the American flag.  His ship often won against the larger English ships.

     New Hampshire's motto is "Live Free or Die!"  The White Mountains are New Hampshire's most famous landmark.  Robert Frost, who was a famous poet, lived in two different places, one being Derry, New Hampshire.  He also spent a lot of time in Vermont.

Information gathered and retold from The Colony of New Hampshire, a wonderful resource book

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