what were the middle colonies

The Middle Colonies were a subset of the Thirteen Colonies in British America, located between the New England Colonies and the Southern Colonies. They included Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. The Middle Colonies were the most ethnically and religiously diverse British colonies in North America with settlers from England, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and German states. The region had a mild climate with warm summers and fertile soil, which was good for farming. Wheat and corn from local farms would feed the American colonies through their colonial infancy and revolutionary adolescence. The Middle Colonies served as important distribution centers in the English mercantile system, and New York and Philadelphia grew at a fantastic rate. These cities gave rise to brilliant thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin, who earned respect on both sides of the Atlantic. The Middle Colonies represented a middle ground between its neighbors to the North and South, and elements of both New England towns and sprawling country estates could be found.