What Role Did Geography Play In The Economy Of The Colonies

The three colonies all wanted to make money but they had to go about it in different ways. This was mainly due to what they had available. The New England Colonies were mainly agricultural farmers. With all the water reservoirs like Cape Cod there were plenty of fish so lots of people became fishermen. There were a lot of lumberjacks to cut down trees and export them to England. The Middle Colonies were extremely different because they set up extensive cosmopolitan cities reminiscent of New York. They had many specialists like doctors, lawyers, accountants, and teachers. They traded a lot with in North America and occasionally overseas. The Southern Colonies primarily depended on cotton and tobacco plantations. As the plantations grew they had to employ black slaves. The plantations were fully self contained with their own blacksmith, teachers and professionals. So there were no big cities or towns. The main plantations traded directly with Europe via the Mississippi. The three colonies all made money differently with their diverse professions and traders.

The article, “Economy in Colonial New England” talks about the economy in the New England colony, it says “In contrast to the southern colonies, which could produce tobacco, rice, and indigo in exchange for imports, New England's colonies couldn't offer much to England beyond fish, furs, and naval stores.” The New England colonies used the fishing and the construction of boats to maintain economically. They made soap, clothing and candles. Its exports fish, whale products, boats, wood products, furs, maple syrup, copper, horses, beer and whiskey. They had problems with agriculture, it was difficult to plant wheat because the quality of nutrients on the land was poor, but corn, pumpkins, rye and beans had better

Shipbuilding was a fast growing industry created a boom for New England economy. They also gain profit out of transporting trading goods back and forth from and to England, and also for transporting slaves out of Africa and into North America. The New England settlers were so success at their shipbuilding business that actually

The economy of the two regions also greatly differed because of the terrain that they landed on. Because the land in the south was much more fertile than in the north, the southern colonies thrived in rice and tobacco, profiting greatly. In New England the settlers could not grow anything in the rocky terrain and were forced into fishing, building, and farming. However, not much farming went on because of the infertile soil. In the Chesapeake slaves were also a main part of their economy. The slave trade made them very wealthy because of their closeness to the West Indies. They would be shipped many slaves and then use them to harvest their crops and plant their land. Soon, the slaves outnumbered white settlers by about four to one.

Even with their differences all three colonies varied in economical activity. The New England colonies used the forests and trees around them to their advantage for transportation and began building ships. They also worked as fisherman even due to the freezing temperatures such as in Massachusetts. They also hunted for whales to produce ivory and oil for lamps. The economy in the Mid-Atlantic colonies was based largely on agriculture and farming. The land in Pennsylvania was less rocky and smoother as oppose to the New England colonies. Another factor was that the climate and weather was much more calm then the other colonies, which resulted in a longer growing season. Their chief export was grain grown by farmers as well as cash crops, corn, various fruits and vegetables, and livestock. The Southern colonies were further down south towards the equator, which made fishing a good source of making money. Farmlands in the south such as in Virginia were excellent and had rich soil and the climate was better for farming crops. Rice, cotton, and indigo were huge crops, however tobacco was the most important and widely used cash

They also fished as their source of food. They hadas human resources skilled craftsmen, shopkeepers, and shipbuilders. These people of the New England colony specialized in whaling, fishing, shipbuilding, industry, and naval supplies. WE traded with the southern colony for cotton, and other materials in order to manufacture our goods. They also depended on the Mid Atlantic colonies for their livestock and grain.They trade to the Mid Atlantic colonies the goods they don't produce themselves. The Boston harbor became a great big center of commerce.

The “Triangular Trade” was the trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. They traded crops, goods, and slaves. The transportation of slaves from Africa to the New World is what has been labeled as the “Middle Passage.” Many accounts have been documented about this transportation, in the eyes of historians, crew members of the actual ships, and even slaves who went through this voyage themselves. All of them have a different way of describing how the Middle Passage was truly experienced. However, when looking at them in a general sense, a very clear conclusion can be made: slaves were kept in a horrific environment, which often affected the crew on board, but the only reason the slaves were kept alive was because the white crews saw them as monetary beings rather than human beings.

Their main export was bread and livestock. Unlike the Southern Colonies and their massive farms, the Middle Colonies had a much smaller scale for land. Most farms were 50 to 150 acres and this included everything on that land, not just the main farm building. As I stated before, the Middle Colonies was called the “Bread Basket” and this is thanks to our lovely friends: the Quakers. There’s a reason why the Quakers have an oatmeal company named after them. If they weren’t singing or praying they were harvesting oats and baking bread, which resulted in making the Middle Colonies a gigantic and fun bakery. Our final cluster in our journey of the colonies is: New England!

Although mid-Atlantic colonies did not develop a planation economy, there were still slaves working in the farmlands. Slaves were employed to work alongside tenant farmers to do manual labor and grow grains. People in New England and the middle colonies were town-living with domestic servants. These servants spent their time in the house cooking and cleaning, or running errands. There was no need for as many slaves as there were in the

Eventually, the white settlers began growing rice because it was an “easier” crop to grow and would produce large profits. Rice was not found in America, but it was brought over by a slave from Africa. Due to shortages of food African slaves would grow rice to feed themselves. The white settlers saw how easily the African slaves grew the rice and decided that was going to be their cash crop. The rice industry started to thrive, but white planters wanted more. As the rice industry grew, it led to the buying and trading of slaves through the Atlantic Slave Trade. “South Carolina’s especially heavy commitment to the use of Negro labor coincided closely with the development of rice as a new and profitable staple.” They needed more slaves so they could grow large amounts of rice. Later in the colonial era, slave owners were in search of slaves with specialized trades. These slaves brought in more money for the slave owners and was a greater investment. The African slave’s effect on the economy was tremendous due to their knowledge of cattle, rice, and specialized trades.

Seventy-five percent of all slaves were field workers. Their primary duties were to plant, cultivate and pick various types of crops. Most slaves would have been involved in large cash crops such as tobacco and indigo in pre-revolutionary times and cotton in post-revolutionary times. Both crops were similar in that they required hard year-round labor to cultivate and prepare crops for market. Field workers could expect to rise before sun-up and head to the fields at first light. Slaves would have worked until just before dark breaking somewhere during the day for rest and lunch. Work was hard

Many New Englanders were making a huge profit off this business, and Britain realized and put the Navigation and Trade Acts into place which put a hefty tax on Colonial imports and forced them to only trade with Britain. These acts led some Colonists to smuggle their goods and make a profit under Britain’s nose. The New England Colonies were almost perfect. They had a plenitude of “natural resources and industries” but lacked fertile soil(Alchin). Therefore they could not produce their own crops and sustain

The working class in the South is mirrored directly to the plantation system. Jamestown was chosen for its geographical features. In consideration that Jamestown was a peninsula, colonists had an easy access to anchor their ships in and out of shores. The fertile soil and warm climate of the South made it ideal for large-scale farms and crops like tobacco and cotton. In 1612, John Rolfe initiated the Tobacco industry into Jamestown, and as result, England was importing 1.5 million pounds of tobacco

Some slaves in typical plantations would be responsible for domestic chores. The situation assured them of better quarters and superior treatment. At the same time, the conditioned exposed them abuse and close supervision. Women mostly worked as nannies, maids and cooks doing laundry work and sewing. The field workers often worked under close supervision, mostly by the whites. Around 75 percent of slaves who worked as field workers spend a lot of hours in the plantations (Townsend 1860). They performed difficult field labor, driven by the masters' threat and lashes. The situation led to the slaves suffering from poor health. Plantation slaves found in the South were commonly agricultural workers as few owners owned more than almost a dozen of slaves. The slave owners'

By 1750, about 200,000 slaves lived in the colonies and most of them in the south, where the warm climate and good soil permitted the great development of plantations such as rice, tobacco, sugar cane and cotton among others. Slaves therefore played a big role in these plantations working directly in the fields, though some others worked as servants craft workers, etc. In the northern colonies, slaves worked in factories, homes, and shipyards.