Chapter 4, Section 1 Life in the Colonies

Vocabulary and Timeline Vocabulary: Subsistence farming, triangular trade, cash crop, diversity, Tidewater, backcountry, overseer Timeline 1700s A.D. 1750 A.D. 1750s A.D. Thousands of enslaved New England is the South Carolina Africans are brought to center of colonial and Georgia have America shipping the fastest growing colonial economies |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

New England Colonies Immigration was an important factor to the growth of the colonies. Between 1607 and 1790, almost a million people came to live in the colonies. The colonies also grew as women married younger and had more children, as more babies survived childhood diseases, and as people began living longer.

New England Colonies Most New Englanders lived in towns. Each town had a meetinghouse facing a green where cows grazed and the army trained. The meetinghouse was used for both town meetings and church services. The soil in New England made farming difficult. Farming produced just enough to meet the needs of families. This was called subsistence farming. The farms in New England were also smaller than those in the South.

New England Colonies Small businesses thrived. Skilled craftspeople, such as blacksmiths, furniture makers, and printers, started businesses. Women often produced extra candles, garments, and soup to sell or trade. Shipbuilding and fishing were important industries. Trade with Northern and Southern colonies and with the West Indies centered in New England. For example, manufactured goods from Europe were traded for fish, furs and fruit from New England.

New England Colonies The triangular trade route developed. Ships brought sugar and molasses from the West Indies to New England where the molasses was made into rum. From New England, the rum and other manufactured foods were shipped to Africa. On the second leg in Africa, these goods were traded for enslaved Africans. On the last leg, the enslaved Africans were taken to the West Indies where they were sold to planters. The profit was used to buy more molasses, and the triangular trade continued. The Triangular Trade Route

New England Colonies One of the worst parts of the triangular trade was called the Middle Passage. Enslaved Africans endured inhumane treatment and conditions during the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Olaudah Equiano, a young African forced onto a ship to America, described the voyage. “I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such . . . [an odor] in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life . . . The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us . . . The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole scene a horror.”

New England New England’s economy flourished with its trade, shipbuilding and fishing industries. New England’s population grew and towns and cities developed.

The Middle Colonies The Middle Colonies had fertile soil and a slightly milder climate than New England. Therefore, farms in the Middle Colonies were larger than the farms in New England. As a result, they produced greater quantities of cash crops. Cash crops are crops that could be sold easily in markets in the colonies and overseas. In New York and Pennsylvania, farmers grew large quantities of wheat. The port cities of New York and Philadelphia became busy with the wheat and livestock that were shipped from them.

The Middle Colonies Lumbering, mining, small-scale manufacturing, and home-based crafts (such as, carpentry and flour making) were major industries in the region. One iron mill in northern New Jersey employed several hundred workers, many of them from Germany. Other small ironworks operated in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Middle Colonies Religious and cultural differences existed here. Immigrants from Germany, Holland, Sweden and other non-English countries provided a cultural diversity not found in New England. Most of the 100,000 German immigrants who came to America during this time settled in Pennsylvania. They used agricultural methods developed in Europe and became successful farmers. The Germans belonged to several Protestant groups. With the diversity, or variety, came tolerance for different religions and cultures.

The Southern Colonies The Southern Colonies had rich soil and a warm climate. This made them suited for certain types of farming. Southern farmers could cultivate large areas of land and produce harvests of cash crops. Because most settlers in the Southern Colonies made their living from farming the land, they did not need to develop commerce or industry. For the most part, London merchants rather than local merchants managed Southern trade.

The Southern Colonies The economies of the Southern Colonies were dependent upon tobacco in Maryland and Virginia and on rice in South Carolina and Georgia. Most of the tobacco was sold in Europe, where the demand for it was high. Slaveholders with large properties became rich on tobacco. Sometimes, a surplus was put on the market, and the price for tobacco would fall. Some tobacco farmers switched to growing other crops like wheat and corn. The rice in South Carolina and Georgia was made by building dams to create the rice fields called paddies. Work in the rice paddies involved standing knee deep in the mud all day with no protection from the sun or the insects. Rice was even more profitable than tobacco. Rice became popular in southern Europe and prices rose steadily. By the 1750s, South Carolina and Georgia had the fastest-growing economies in the colonies.

The Southern Colonies Growing tobacco and rice was dependent upon slave labor. At first tobacco planters used indentured servants to work in the fields. When indentured servants became scarce and expensive, they used slaves instead. Slave labor was also used for rice harvesting. Tobacco and rice were grown on plantations. A plantation, or large farm, was often on a river so crops could be shipped easily by boat. Each plantation was a community consisting of a main house, kitchens, slave cabins, barns, stables, outbuildings and perhaps a chapel and a school. Most of the large Southern plantations were in the Tidewater region of the South. The Tidewater region is a region of flat, low-lying plains along the seacoast.

The Southern Colonies West of the Tidewater, lay a region of hills and forests climbing up toward the Appalachian Mountains. This region was known as the backcountry and was settled in part by hardy new settlers to the colonies. These settlers grew corn and tobacco on small farms. They usually worked alone or with their families, although some had one or two enslaved Africans to help. These independent small farmers outnumbered the large plantation owners. The plantation owners, however, had greater wealth and more influence. The plantation owners controlled the economic and political life of the region.

Slavery in the South Slavery was the main reason for the economic success of the South. It was criticized as being inhumane. Some colonists did not believe in slavery, nor would they own enslaved people. Most of the enslaved Africans in North America lived on plantations. Many suffered cruel treatment. All of the Southern Colonies had slave labor and slave codes, or strict rules that governed the enslaved Africans. All colonists were encouraged to enforce these laws.

Slavery in the South Although many enslaved Africans saw their families torn apart and suffered from harsh treatment, they also developed their own culture as enslaved people. This culture was based on their West African homelands. The slaves drew strength from their African roots and the culture they developed was based on the language, customs, and religions of West Africa. Some slaves were given the opportunity to learn trades and become skilled workers. If they were lucky enough to buy their freedom, they developed communities with other free African Americans. The debate over slavery ended in a war with the North against the South – The Civil War.