The Colonial Economy

Main Idea

A commerce-based economy developed in the northern colonies, while the southern colonies developed an

agricultural economy.

Reading Focus

• What were the characteristics of northern colonial economies?

• What were the characteristics of southern colonial economies?

• What was the impact of slavery in the colonies?

Colonial Economies

Agriculture was the main economic activityFarming in New England• Soil was thin and rocky; growing season short.• Subsistence farming – growing enough food for their

own family. Some raised extra for trade Rarely enough to export

Farming in middle colonies - German colonists (Pennsylvania Dutch) Used fertilizer and crop rotation, women worked in the fields too

Farming in the South – Better land & climate. Grew for sale; raised cattle and hogs for export

Northern Colonial Economies

Natural resources• When fur trade declined, colonists turned to

timber & fish.• Due to Navigation Acts, coastal towns were

centers for shipbuilding.Fish• Some fish exported to Europe & West Indies. In

early 1700s whaling industry began in N.E. Whale products: lamp oil and materials used in perfumes, candles, and women’s corsets

Northern Colonial Economies

Colonial industriesEnglish goods were expensive, so colonists made things at home. Small industries developed:

•Mills run by water - ground grain into flour•Distilleries – alcoholic beverage were major businesses

•Ironworks, bricks, leather goods, glass and cloth

Northern Colonial Economies

Trade and commerce•Good harbors, inexpensive ships encouraged development of commerce.

•Port cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia were thriving centers of trade.

Southern Economy

•Triangular trade – trade routes that linked the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the West Indies

•Middle Passage –journey enslaved Africans made from West Africa across Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies.

Cash crops - products grown to be soldtobacco, indigo (used to make blue dye), ricerope, tar, and turpentine used in shipbuilding

South Colonial Economies

Plantation system• Planters – wealthy, dominated society & politics.• Plantations - hundreds of workers, indentured

servants or slaves • Most worked in the fields, some performed other

tasks, such as shoemaking, weaving, and carpentry.

Southern Colonial Economy

•Small Farms

• Most farms had fewer than 30 workers• Slaves worked alongside farmers.• Independent yeoman farmers

– livestock – corn, wheat, fruit, & vegetables for home

market– tobacco, sold it through large planters

The Impact of Slavery

• Former slave who wrote a book about his life in slavery • His description of the Middle Passage horrors

encouraged readers to call for the end of slavery.

AfricanSlaveTrade

• By the 1600s Portugal, Spain, France, Holland, and England were involved in trans-Atlantic slave trade.

• Most captured Africans were taken to colonies in the Caribbean and South America, then to North America.

• The Middle Passage was a horrifying experience where men, women, and children were packed in the ships

Olaudah Equiano

The Impact of Slavery

Reasons slavery continued:• English considered themselves superior• Cost less and easier to obtain than indentured servants• Slaves’ children - next generation of workers

Resisting slavery• Many slaves used physical resistance, sabotage, or ran

away.• Stono Rebellion: In 1739, 100 enslaved Africans in South

Carolina took weapons from a firearms shop and killed several people.

• Some skilled artisans bought their freedom by hiring out their labor.