Although the Northern colonies in North America produced the same products England did, due to the different climate and geography, the Southern colonies produced things England could not produce. But, although the Southern colonies were more valuable than their peers to the North, they were less valuable to the Mother Country (England) than its sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean.

The stony and infertile fields of New England imposed a severe economic handicap on the people who settled in this region. Agriculture as the colonists knew it in the old country was impossible in this inhospitable terrain; so they adapted and innovated in order to be able to support themselves. Even before the Revolution, much of New England had to import food. This was not true of the other colonies.

Many New Englanders turned away from farming, at least as a full time occupation. Some became fishermen. This led to the creation of a ship building industry. Others turned to foreign trade, taking American goods abroad and trading them for foreign goods or slaves mostly sold to Southerners and trading goods acquired in one foreign country for goods from another.

In methods of local government the colonies were less uniform than in the general government. As stated in my account of Massachusetts at an earlier date, the old parish of England became the town in New England. The people, owing to the necessity of guarding against the Indians and wild animals, and to their desire to attend the same church, settled in