american colonies
...vants with them. The surrounding colonies were founded by people who were expelled from Massachusetts by the Puritans for religious and social differences, and thus were more tolerant to all religions. Unlike other colonies, agriculture in New England was never a strong industry. Slavery did not last in New England due to the lack of work on small farms that arose occasionally. Due to the poor production of food in New England, trade became the most advantageous profession. Boston and other port cities became some of the most important trade centers and harbors in North America. New England cities became wealthy places of commerce by importing food and exporting manufactured goods. The Mid-Atlantic Colonies, unlike New England’s, were much more suited for farming grain and wheat, due to it’s more fertile soil. In ports such as New York City and Philadelphia, tenant farmers sold excess grain and eventually made enough money to buy land. After King George’s War, poor grain crops in Europe made the Mid-Atlantic Colonies’ grain more expensive, which meant bigger profits for farmers. New York City started out making money, not from farming, but from trading what others farmed. Each area in the Mid-Atlantic Colonies had it’s own separate culture and origin. Pennsylvania’s culture was most influenced by the Quakers that founded it under William Penn. Being mostly a Quaker settlement, they ran it comparably to the Puritans in Plymouth, but were more tolerant, meaning they did not expel non-Quakers, as long as they kept to themselves. The Dutch-West India Co. in 1664, first settled the New York area, and the result was a Dutch-like strong trading economy, like the Netherlands. Many Dutch customs remained, even after the English took control of the New Netherlands, which eventually became New York City(after the Duke of York.) Finally, the Southern Colonies were cash crop societies. The South relied on crops such as rice, indigo, and tobacco; unlike the foodstuffs farming of the Mid-Atlantic Colonies. The tobacco trade between Virginia and Georgia was grown in large quantities, and then exported to England. Unlike New England, It was not processed in the colonies, but in England. Raw materials are always cheaper than finished goods, so fewer profits were made. Many people had to be hired ...