Four British Regions
Chesapeake: tobacco, and a change of labour
- The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies grew prosperous exporting tobacco — a labour-intensive product initially cultivated by white, mostly male indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans.
- Initially... and later is a change over time inside one sentence, and it is the change 2.6 explains.
- Labour-intensive is the cause: a crop that needs many hands makes the labour question decisive.
The Chesapeake labour force changed from...
'Initially... and later' — a change 2.6 explains.
New England: towns, farms, mixed economy
- The New England colonies, initially settled by Puritans, developed around small towns with family farms and achieved a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce.
- Family farms and small towns are the units — a settlement pattern that supports the town meetings of 2.3's last bullet.
- Mixed economy of agriculture and commerce means no single export dominated, which matters for how the region weathered trade policy.
Put the middle colonies' causal chain in order.
Tolerance as a consequence of composition.
The middle colonies: cereals and diversity
- The middle colonies supported a flourishing export economy based on cereal crops and attracted a broad range of European migrants, leading to societies with greater cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity and tolerance.
- The CED gives a causal chain: exports → migrants → diversity → tolerance.
- So tolerance here is described as a consequence of composition, not only of principle.
The CED records cultural and religious autonomy developed by enslaved people themselves.
Not only what was done to them.
"Unusually democratic for the era" is comparative, and the sentence carries its own limit. New England based power in participatory town meetings, while in the southern colonies elite planters exercised local authority and also dominated the elected assemblies — same claim, two very different distributions of power.
Which British colonial region?
Sort each description into its region.
Match each region to how power was exercised.
Same claim, two very different distributions of power.
The southern coast and West Indies
- The colonies of the southern Atlantic coast and the British West Indies used long growing seasons to develop plantation economies based on exporting cash crops.
- They depended on the labour of enslaved Africans, who often constituted the majority of the population in these areas and developed their own forms of cultural and religious autonomy.
- The last clause is essential: the CED records autonomy created by enslaved people themselves, not only what was done to them.
Distance and Britain's initially ____ attention produced self-governing institutions.
Unusually democratic for the era — a comparative claim.
Self-government, by distance and inattention
- Distance and Britain's initially lax attention led to the colonies creating self-governing institutions that were unusually democratic for the era.
- The New England colonies based power in participatory town meetings, which in turn elected members to their colonial legislatures; in the southern colonies, elite planters exercised local authority and also dominated the elected assemblies.
- Unusually democratic for the era is a comparative claim, and the southern half of the sentence shows the limit within it.
Two colonies both elect an assembly. In one, the electors meet in person in a town hall; in the other, a few dozen landholders decide who stands. Both are elections, and calling them the same thing loses the entire difference.
Chesapeake and North Carolina exported tobacco, cultivated initially by white, mostly male indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans; New England developed small towns with family farms and a thriving mixed economy; the middle colonies ran a cereal export economy attracting migrants and producing diversity and tolerance; and the southern Atlantic coast and British West Indies built plantation economies dependent on enslaved Africans, who often constituted the majority and developed their own forms of cultural and religious autonomy. Distance and Britain's initially lax attention produced self-government unusually democratic for the era.