Lessons · Teaching · the colonies, and why they differed
Three regions, three economies, one later argument
The English colonies differed by geography. New England had poor soil and good harbours, so it built shipping, fishing and small farms. The middle colonies had good soil and grew grain. The southern colonies had long growing seasons and built large plantations worked by enslaved people.
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What it is for
Every later disagreement between the regions is already visible here, which makes this the most useful lesson in early American history. A pupil who understands the three economies can predict the argument about slavery rather than being told about it.
How to think about it
Start from the land and let the economy follow, then let the society follow the economy. Ask what the land allows, then what work that creates, then who does that work and who holds power. The chain runs the same way in each region and produces three different answers.
Worked example
New England: thin soil, good harbours, so fishing, shipbuilding, trade and small townsSmall farms, town meetings, and a lot of people near each other.
Middle: good soil and rivers, so grain, mixed farming and more varied settlementSometimes called the bread colonies for the obvious reason.
South: long growing season, so tobacco, rice and later cotton on large plantationsLabour-hungry crops, and the labour was enslaved people.
The economies made the politics, and the politics made the later conflictThe argument that ends in civil war is legible here already.
Your turn
Name what the southern plantation economy depended on for its labour.
Plantation labour was the work of people
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Teaching the regions as three flavours of the same thing. The difference in who did the work and whether they were free is not a regional flavour, and it is the difference that mattered.