Northen Colonies vs Southern Colonies Essay

Submitted By stephcarroll12
Words: 682
Pages: 3

The development of the British colonies was based on a variety of different things. There are many differences between the North, South, and Middle British colonies, including geographic dissimilarities, and various social, political, religious and economic ways of life. Although they were all very different, they did all seem to agree upon the strong will for Independence from their mother country, Britain. The northern colonies, otherwise known as New England including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. The southern colonies as South and North Carolina, and the middle colonies, as Virginia, and Maryland all unified together to eventually create the great country we live in known as, the United States of America. In the North, the key economic successor was through the manufacturing business, and relied heavily on the sea. The location of the northern colony was along the Atlantic Coast, making it extremely easy to import, and export goods they made to other countries, primarily with Britain. Due to the key waterfront location, they also flourished on fishing, whaling, and ship building. The north was very forested, with lots of trees, and they took this to their advantage by cutting them down, and trading the lumber. The geographic conditions were very poor. They did not have sufficient or fertile soil in order to farm efficiently, thus they could not trade food, but rather manufactured goods instead. However, they did farm to an extent, enough to feed themselves, but never could come to the point of a surplus due to the cold winters leaving their crops to die. Their social life was centered around the towns. On the other hand, in the Southern colonies, they prospered heavily on plantation farming, and their economy was based on their agricultural success. With fertile soil, and mild climates, it was very easy to cultivate their crops, and eventually trade them as well. The farmers here consisted of tidewater farmers, piedmont farmers, and landless farmers. These three different farmers, separated the southern colony, socially. The Tidewater farmers, were the wealthy, with good land, and water access. The Piedmont Farmers were the “middle class”, with small farms, and bad soil, but a very large population constantly trying to get land from the natives. Lastly, the Landless Farmers were the poor, with no rights and no land, who had to sell their services. Due to the many plantations in the south, these areas of land needed much care, and often were worked on by slaves, mostly from Africa, who were bought and sold especially between the wealthy Tidewater Farmers. Politics between the northern and southern colonies were different