Farming In The Middle Colonies Essay

862 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Slave trade in africa

Agriculture, the act of farming and cultivating soil to grow certain items, played a large and important role in how each of the four colonial regions were developed and how the regions attained a unique identity. The Middle colonies, comprised of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, had favorable and better climate, which lead to diversified farming. The diverse farming contributed to the production of grains and cereals, which was responsible for feeding the communities of slaves. The Middle colonies were the “breadbasket to the slave communities” before the Chesapeake colonies were because they figured out that tobacco wasn’t as profitable before earlier. Agriculture played significant role in developing the Middle colonies because the nice and friendlier conditions, due to growing grains, attracted many immigrants.The immigrant formed the middle class, which was very high in the Middle colonies. The influx of immigrants lead to many things like high …show more content…

Producing copious amounts of tobacco required the use of indentured servants and later slaves. However, later they began growing and profiting from grain because the land for growing tobacco was not suitable anymore, and the market of tobacco wasn’t stable. Not only did they begin producing grain because of the decline of tobacco, but they also did it because they realized the slave colonies, especially the Carribean, needed grains for food because they only produced sugar. Agriculture contributed to racial division because a white farmer with little land could save up to buy a slave, and thus a poor white farmer is superior to a black. They did this so the white poor people would not gang up with the blacks to rebel. It also contributed to economy stabilized because they focus less on tobacco production and more on grain

Show More
Related

  • Middle Colonies Pros And Cons

    449 Words  | 1 Pages

    Middle Colonies one of the more interesting groups of colonies had good soil, diverse population, and lots of different jobs. Since there is a moderate grow season and flat land in the middle colonies this allowed for great amounts of farming to be done. In comparison to the new england colonies who had rocky soil and short growing season. This made life more farm centered. In the middle colonies there were lots of religious diversity. In pennsylvania there were the quakers who were exiled by the king to pennsylvania. The religious freedom was also helped along by the fact that all of the colonies were settled by proprietors who let everyone have religious freedom. Since the middle colonies were taken over from the Dutch this meant that the

    Read More

  • Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox by Edmund Morgan

    1667 Words  | 4 Pages

    The use of labor came in two forms; indenture servitude and Slavery used on plantations in the south particularly in Virginia. The southern colonies such as Virginia were based on a plantation economy due to factors such as fertile soil and arable land that can be used to grow important crops, the plantations in the south demanded rigorous amounts of labor and required large amounts of time, the plantation owners had to employ laborers in order to grow crops and sell them to make a profit. Labor had become needed on the plantation system and in order to extract cheap labor slaves were brought to the south in order to work on the plantations. The shift from indentured servitude to slavery was an important time as well as the factors that contributed to that shift, this shift affected the future generations of African American descent. The history of colonial settlements involved altercations and many compromises, such as Bacons Rebellion, and slavery one of the most debated topics in the history of the United States of America. The different problems that occurred in the past has molded into what is the United States of America, the reflection in the past provides the vast amount of effort made by the settlers to make a place that was worth living on and worth exploring.

    Read More

  • Northern Colonies Dbq

    436 Words  | 1 Pages

    The three colonial regions economically was that the Northern Colonies were very dependent towards the ocean. Importing goods through trade however affected Northern Colonies through the Navigation Acts due to not being able to trade out of region such as Europe. Shipbuilding and fishing were its main factors to the economy on making profit. Since the Northern Colonies are close to the ocean, they were high on fish and as well as being able to be part of the fur trade where it was major for both natives and the English. Southern regional colonies economy was based on sugar, rice, cotton, and tobacco. This is due to large lands of farm and consisting good farmland resources. For Middle colonies the economy was based

    Read More

  • New England Colonies Essay

    1822 Words  | 4 Pages

    The plantation industry was the most important economical factor in the Southern colonies because they used indentured servants to help with there products. Indentured servants were people who agreed to work without pay for a certain amount of time in exchange for passage to America. Plantations relied on indentured servants to help with the agriculture. The good farmland allowed the servants to produce cattle, fish, grain, indigo, iron, rum, lumber, rice, and tobacco on the plantations. Tobacco was the leading export which was a wonderful cash crop, and it’s still a major industry

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The New England Middle And Southern Colonies

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    Southern colonies were hilly coast with grew cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar cans .also they had specific regions which gave way to religious freedoms.The founders of the Southern Colonies were, for the most part, out to make money. They brought their families, as did the New England colonists, and they kept their families together on the plantations.In the Southern Colonies and travel environment controlled social life. The Southern Colonies had a hard-and-fast three class system. Upper-class rich colony owners, middle-class small colony owners, lower class.The southern colonies were established early on after the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. At first, the south also relied on the forests and the water, but tobacco and cotton later emerged as cash crops. Initially, these crops were harvested by indentured servants, but with the growth of plantations, planters started to import slaves from Africa. In the South, there was a great divide between the rich and the poor. The Church of England was the dominant religion and the center of life for southerners. Laws were made by county governments and the economy centered around the large

    Read More

  • Difference Between Slavery And Indentured Servitude

    809 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the seventeenth century, colonists began to establish permanent settlements and emerge their own way of life in these new colonies. The colonists’ way of life often revolved around the environment they were surrounded by. Land in the Chesapeake region was not completely suitable for the settlers. However, the land was very useful for the cultivation of tobacco. The economies in the Chesapeake thrived on tobacco, but they required workers for this labor intensive crop. Thus, two major labor systems were introduced: indentured servitude and slavery. Despite the fact that both systems were introduced to the Southern colonies for the same reason, slavery and indentured servitude still functioned differently and were introduced at different times throughout the American colonial era.

    Read More

  • Smoking Hazards: Tobacco Cultivation In Colonial America

    1762 Words  | 4 Pages

    Tobacco was a main crop in colonial America that helped stabilize the economy (Cotton 1). Despite the fact that tobacco took the place of the other crops in Virginia, as well as replacing the hunt for gold with tobacco cultivation. It proved to be a major cash crop, especially in Virginia and Maryland (Weeks 3). Tobacco left many people financially troubled because other occupations were disregarded or not as profitable as tobacco farmers (Randel 128). The unemployment that tobacco brought about made many colonists poor and homeless (128). After the tobacco boom started, many men signed themselves to indentured servitude hoping to be freed and given land along with other promised goods (Tunis 79). Three hundred and fifty thousand African slaves were also imported to labor on large tobacco plantations in the South (Weeks 1). The tobacco industry had a profound effect on colonial America, socially and economically.

    Read More

  • The American Revolution’s Effect on the Institution of Slavery

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery allowed the American economy to flourish for over 300 years. It allowed many Southern states to grow at a furious pace without significantly diversifying their economy. The South relied on the harvesting of cash crops such as tobacco and cotton, which were very labor intensive. Without much cheap labor, slaves were relied on to harvest the crops; this provided enormous value to farmers and plantation owners in the region. However, the institution of slavery was challenged in the 18th century by decades of Enlightenment thought, newfound religious ideals, and larger abolitionist groups. After the American Revolution many states would ban the practice of slavery completely and only a few would maintain the “peculiar institution”.

    Read More

  • Bacon's Rebellion Research Paper

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jamestown colony became a large exporter of tobacco. Most settlers were farmers or indentured servants. However, as living conditions improved, farmers live longer lives and began to amass greater wealth. Simultaneously, more indentured servants were becoming free men, and a distinction arose among the wealthy and poor farmers. Wealthy farmers were atop the social hierarchy and help important positions in local government, including the ability

    Read More

  • Environment In The New England Colonies

    355 Words  | 1 Pages

    Settlers in the New England colonies had a harder time growing crops in their area due to the kind of soil. The harsh and bitterly cold winters also made it difficult. However, due to their location on the coast they were able to fish, which was essentially a staple in their economy. The middle colonies were known as the “breadbasket” because their main crops were wheat, barley, oats, rye, and corn. The southern colonies were known for growing indigo, cotton, and rice, but their primary crop was unquestionably tobacco. Tobacco was in such high demand, not only in Europe but in the colonies as well, that it became known as a cash crop and was the main source of their

    Read More

  • New England Colonies Mission

    339 Words  | 1 Pages

    The establishment of the New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies were the foundation of what we call America. The purpose and mission of founding the New England colonies were different than that of the Jamestown settlers. Prosperity and economics were still part of their mission, however their main goal was to have religious freedom. The geographical features of the New England colonies included rocky coastlines with rich soil. The rich soil was the perfect ground for planting all of their crops, such as wheat, corn, rye, beans, and potatoes. These crops were their main source of economic growth. The closeness to the ocean, which had a sustained food supply, allowed them to fish for food.

    Read More

  • 13 Colonies Environment

    509 Words  | 2 Pages

    The rich soil, flat land, flat land, and 6-7 month growing season led to more farms and a surplus of goods. The deep harbors let colonists fish, and the abundance of timber allowed them to build ships to take out on the deep harbors to get more supplies. Colonists grew crops for themselves and sold what they had left over, many colonists had cashcrops. In the Middle colonies they had various ethnics and religions. Quakers ruled over the Middle colonies and they believed that everyone was equal no matter what their religion or ethnic

    Read More

  • the development of slavery in America

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slavery was the main resource used in the Chesapeake tobacco plantations. The conditions in the Chesapeake region were difficult, which lead to malnutrition, disease, and even death. Slaves were a cheap and an abundant resource, which could be easily replaced at any time. The Chesapeake region’s tobacco industries grew and flourished on the intolerable and inhumane acts of slavery.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Race In A Different Mirror By Ronald Takaki

    2005 Words  | 5 Pages

    Africans unlike the Irish or the Chinese did not come willingly to America, in which they were captured and brought to America by slave ships then sold as slaves. Slaves were in high demand in which having indentured servants became less valuable in which the institution of slavery was strengthened overtime after Bacon Rebellion because the planter class now fear to have white workers for fear the social order would be disrupted (Takaki, pg. 59). Slavery helped to shape the history of the United States in which this institution made possible for the formation of the American Revolutionary ideals because slaves were running the nation through the work they were doing. This gave time for the leaders to formulate and plan the revolution. It also helped to fuel early globalization and the global market, the nation economy and capitalism through the slave trade. All these things gave rise to modern industry, modern finance, modern investment, new system of banking, in which it helped to give rise to the creation of wage laborers, in which this helped to finance the Industrial Revolution. With the rise of the cotton production, slaves became more valuable, in which cotton accelerates the value of slaves. Although slaves were an important source of labor for the Market Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and

    Read More

  • Life In Colonial America

    442 Words  | 1 Pages

    Life in the colonies was not easy for a lot of people. Many people had to work long and hard all day to survive. I will show you what life was like from the point of view of different people in the colony. The native Americans were very excited when the colonists first landed. They got to meet and they soon became allies. But once the colonists started taking their land the Native Americans were not happy. They were losing a lot of land and they wanted it to stop. Many of them soon became slaves. They were no longer happy with the colonists. They started fighting back but lack of tecnology led to most of them dying. Another group of people in the colonies are the landowners. These people had many slaves and thought that they were better than everyone else. According to Encyclopedia.net “Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island were the three New England states with the largest slave population.” the new england

    Read More

More about Farming In The Middle Colonies Essay

Open Document