Differences between British Colonies in America Essay Example

Although the regions of British America (New England, Virginia, West Indies) shared certain similarities in their viewpoints of gender roles, the differing geological climates led each region to deviate from each other in economic commodification of goods and sources of labor. 

New England geographically lies in the Northern region of British America, harsh winters and poor soil quality made it “difficult to farm and unsuitable for crops” (New 1). Inhabitants relied on “fish, whale products, livestock, and lumber” (The 1) to sustain the economy. More specifically, furs and white pine were luxuries in Great Britain, causing settlers and merchants to commodify them, falsely believing these goods to be from an “infinite store” (Cronon 30).  Furthermore the New Englanders were primarily Puritans who fled Britain for religious reasons, making the West Indies their main export partners. The climate in the West Indies significantly contrasted that of New England’s, much closer to the equator and blessed with tropical weather and fertile soil (Neil Kamil 9/27). The warm temperatures inspired agriculture and plantations which “required a large labor force” (Importance 1), originally predominantly white indentured slaves (Neil Kamil 9/27). In the 1640s, tobacco drastically dipped in profit and sugar quickly became the cash crop, catalysing for most if not all real estate in the West Indies to be sugar plantations (Importance 1). With such large demands for sugar, many plantation owners turned to acquiring African slaves from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. 

Similarly, the Virginia region of British America also relied on the labor force of African slaves from trans-Atlantic trade. With fertile soil and warm temperatures, Virginia’s economy in the early to mid 17th century boomed and “tobacco was Virginia’s most successful cash crop” (Salmon 1). With such profits, tobacco “was even used as currency” (Salmon 1) and further used to buy more indentured servants and slaves. Socially both in the West Indies and Virginia, colonists saw slaves and servants as disposable and whose only purpose was to “cultivate”(Salmon 1) plantations and thus bring more labor. The market would eventually hit a bump in the mid 17th century as overproduction caused tobacco prices to become unpredictable (Neil Kamil, 9/27) . It would not be until the mid 18th century that the economy of tobacco would become stable again. By this time however, many of the farmers and planters in Virginia had converted to “growing food crops such as wheat” (Salmon 1). While comparing the labor sources of regions, New England differentiates from the other two regions in the sense that there were very few slaves and servants (Neil Kamil 9/27). As mentioned earlier, New England was a religious safe haven from the Anglican Church and the people of New England were primarily Puritan.

New Englanders and Puritans socially became more “competitive and violent for economic power” (Neil Kamil, 10/8), it was an end to “New England ways” and witchcraft was more often than not used to maintain power in the religion (Neil Kamil, 10/8). In all three regions, it was socially seen that race was more important than class in the matter that “all blacks are inferior to all whites” (Neil Kamil, 10/8). In comparison to the West Indies, Virginia’s elites were more present and eager to maintain “white majority” (Neil Kamil, 10/8) whereas the sugar plantations were ran by “absentee landlords” who went back to England “to live the life of kings” (Neil Kamil, 10/1). Even “past white indentured servants” share in Virginia’s ideology of maintaining “power” (Neil Kamil, 10/8) to the extent that class conscience was replaced with racism.