Colonial period

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Chapter 2

• Colonial period
• 1607-1775

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Colinial Period

• 1607-1860, Approximately 200 years
• Based on subsistence agriculture
• Little mechanization
• Limited labor
• Goal was get rich schemes
• Ex. Virginia Company that founded James Town
• Everyone was a farmer, regardless of previous
  profession or trade as it was necessary for
  survival
• Cottage industries manufacturing goods
  (non-food) in the household, primarily for
  personal use at this time

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• Theocratic societies developed
• Pilgrims landed in Plymouth Harbor , MA
• Failed settlement by 1620
• Created a homogeneous cultures with shared
  dissents and values
• Protestant Work Ethic value placed on hard work,
  savings, and investment

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Colonial Period Cont

• Feudalism
• Though this is not traditional feudalism there
  was a defined system of paying goods and revenue
  to higher royals
• American Feudalism was based on
• Quit Rents which were yearly rent payments to
  the king, even if a person owned the land
• Primogeniture total estates and privileges
  awarded to the eldest son
• Entail Permanently owned land, extending though
  the family heirs
• Population Doubled almost every 30 years in this
  period
• Reaching 2.7 million in 1780

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Labor

• human labor was primarily used because of lack of
  efficient technology (other than hand tools) and
  lack of livestock
• Three typical labor forms
• Indentured servants individuals contracted into
  service for passage fare to the new world.
• Usually for 10 year contracts.
• Abuse of this system was common but did help get
  many (eventually) free individuals over to
  popular colonies

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Labor Con't

• Families Families were large to make up for high
  incidents of death and for more hands for help.
• Primogeniture was the flaw in this system, and
  with vast unclaimed land to the west, these
  children quickly left to find their own claim.
• Slavery This system was common in the southern
  colonies where plantations produced export cash
  crops with African slaves.
• This labor system and crop varieties had been
  proven to work in the West Indies, a similar
  climate.
• This institution was firmly establish by 1650

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Agriculture in the New World

• Crops that thrived in the colonies were foreign
  to colonists, and they struggled to survive until
  they mastered cultivation of these plants.
• The food staples were
• Corn
• Squash
• Beans

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Agriculture in the New World

• Exhaustive agriculture was practical because Of
  low prices of expansive land.
• Though crop rotations and other conservation
  practices were known, they were rarely utilized.
• Livestock
• Livestock agriculture was not practiced on a
  large scale.
• Animal husbandry was mostly ignored, resulting in
  poor stock
• Hogs, which were the most common stock, wandered
  the forests and therefore grew rough and poorly

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Agriculture in the New World

• Markets
• There was little trade within the colonies
  because of poor or no infrastructure
• Profitable markets were abroad
• Great population and wealth were overseas,
  espcaily for new American goods
• Sea transportation was the most efficient means
  of travel, and transport and roads were almost
  nonexistent other than southern river travel.

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Exports

• Exports were as important in the colonies as the
  large markets (and money) was abroad.
• The colonies were isolated from major wealthy
  populations
• Each region had its specialty
• Southern Tobacco, rice, indigo, and
  short-staple cotton
• Middle was the bread basket wheat, rye, and
  barley
• New England Furs, fish, and other resources
  

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Exports

• Tobacco became a craze in England
• Colonies were required to market their product
  exclusively to England to meet this demand
• Corn was used for everything
• food
• export/processing for whiskey
• feed (in later times)

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Export Policy

• British restriction on trade limited the markets
  to the motherland
• This is mercantilism, which was a British policy
  that demanded that the colonies exclusively
  supply Brittan with the raw materials and the
  colonies exclusively purchased Brittan's textiles
• This was implemented through the many Navigation
  Acts

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Export Policy

• Navigation Acts required
• Ships and their crews to be British
• All imports to come from England (if not produced
  there, it must first pass through its ports)
• Enumerated commodities could only be shipped and
  sold to England
• These acts were the key impetus for revolt and
  revolution

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Agriculture in the New World

• Trade patterns
• Direct Trade Commodities shipped directly to
  England
• mostly involved Southern commodities such as
  indigo and tobacco
• Triangular (Indirect) Trade involved the
  processing of products before reaching England
• Most processing and shipping enterprises were
  based out of the many bays and coves of New
  England and Middle colonies
• Most important examples the movement of Rum,
  Slaves, Molasses

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Triangualr Trade
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Land Disposal Policies

• Types of disposal
• Political Land Grants The King grants tracts of
  land to political allies or proprietors
• These proprietors often want to continue
  feudalistic structures in the south.
• This failed as settlers refused to move into the
  same exploitative system that existed in Brittan.
  
• So these proprietors would gift this land to
  friends and family
• Headright System A person was granted 50 acres
  of land in designated, unappropriated areas for
  himself and every additional person that he
  brought with him
• Common in Virginia and Maryland

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Land Disposal Policies

• New England Land Grant Method Land distributed
  into strips including a common cultivation area
  by a utilitarian and fairly egalitarian method
  using a criteria of
• Amount of investment and
• Ability to use the land
• Started by the Massachusetts Bay Company, and the
  practice continued to 1725.
• Groups (usually religious) would petition local
  government for a grant of land.
• This method is important in cultural development
  such as developing strong sense of community and
  greater equality and preventing land speculation
  by equal disposal .

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Land Disposal Policies

• Land Restrictions along the Appalachian Mountains
  blocked western development and trade
• Beginning in 1763, the British government
  reserved all land from the Appalachians to the
  Mississippi River for Native Americans
• Again this caused conflict because of the results
  of primogeniture.

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Regionality
Regional Differences began to develop and would
set the stage for economic, cultural, and policy
divergences and conflicts.
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New England Coloines

• Who
• Multi-national
• Religious dissenters
• Tradesmen

• Difficulties
• Poor, rocky soil
• Cold climate
• Indians and other
• ethic/national colonies

• Opportunities
• Excellent use of natural resources
• Use knowledge of other settlers

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New England Colonies

• New York New Jersey
• New Netherlands in 1624
• fell to British in 1664
• Many conflicts inhibited growth
• Broad ethnicity
• No major export market

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Middle Colonies

• Who
• Religious dissenters
• Families
• Indentured servants
• Difficulties
• Poor soil
• Dense forests for clearing
• Inexperience with native crops and growing cycles
• Opportunities
• Citizens were there for establishing sustainable
  communities

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Middle Colonies

• Pennsylvania
• Grant to William Penn in 1681
• Quickly growing Puritan colony supporting a
  liberal, fairly egalitarian society with a strong
  work ethic
• Large export grain crops such as wheat and rye

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Southern Colonies

• Who
• Nobility
• Slaves
• Gentlemen adventures
• Difficulties
• High rate of disease and death
• Isolated
• Opportunities
• Experience with viable cash crops from the Indies
• Little competition for land (because it was
  already all owned and granted in)
• Navigable rivers

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Southern Colonies

• Maryland
• Land Granted to George Calvert (Lord Baltimore)
  in 1632
• Haven for Roman Catholics, as well as liberty for
  all Christians
• Feudalistic practices failed so a headright
  system enveloped and prospered
• High Religious freedom, high level of self
  governance, free land, and tobacco export helped
  the colony thrive

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Southern Colonies

• Carolinas
• Proprietary grant in 1663
• Settled by landed, wealthy owners who continued
  the feudalistic state through large estates and
  slavery with cash crops such as rice and indigo
• The region remained isolated because of hazardous
  coasts and lack of land owning opportunity

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Major Cultural Values Associated with Farming

• Agriculture vs. Agri culture
• Culture Values
• Beliefs
• Lifestyle

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Culture of Rural America

• Rural Communities
• Values
• Beliefs
• Lifestyle

• Farming
• Culture of Food Production

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Dominant Values

• Freedom to make own decisions
• Opportunity for self-improvement
• Way of life vs. business
• Ability to work outdoors
• Good place to raise a family
• Independence--be own boss
• Work with nature
• Feelings of doing something worthwhile

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The Future of Agriculture 3 Perspectives
A
B
C
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1607
1800
1900
Agrarian Culture
Modernization
Native American Culture--hunting gathering, hoe
culture, tribal
Founding of Jamestown
Industrialization Commercialization
Scientific
Colonial Rule
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Colonial America The First 200 Years

• SURVIVAL
• Subsistence
• Life was fluid
• Theocracy
• Feudalism gets its roots
• Integration of food production with daily living
• everyone is a farmer--farming and agriculture are
  synonymous

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• Importance of religious values
• Protestant work ethic
• Navigation Acts
• Abundant land
• Labor scarcity
• Export crops

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What are some of the dominant values, beliefs and
attitudes shaping agriculture and rural life
today?