The Colonies

People had to work very hard to raise food in New England, because the land tended to be poor and rocky. The climate was wet and cold, and there was only a short season when crops would grow well. There were dense forests that had to be cleared in order to build towns. On the other hand, the coastline offered good fishing, and the ocean made it easy to transport logs on boats. A strong industry based on logging, shipbuilding, and fishing developed in the New England colonies.

In the southern colonies, the weather was warmer and the land was rich and good for farming. These are the colonies where tobacco thrived, and where huge tobacco plantations depended on slave labor for their success. Other crops that did well here were rice, cotton, and indigo. Because there were many rivers that flowed to the Atlantic Ocean, it was possible for plantation owners to transport their crops by ship all the way to England.

There was a mix of large and small farms, dotted with wood and brick houses in the middle colonies. The farmland was fertile and there were also plenty of trees. Like New England, the middle colonies had coastal seaports which made it possible to transport goods. The primary crop was wheat. Rye, barley, corn, and fruit were also important crops. We usually think of the inhabitants of the northern, middle, and southern colonies as Pilgrims and Puritans, although, of course, people came for many different reasons. Later a new region was explored, called the frontier. The frontier region was the most western part of the country into which the immigrants had ventured. Those who moved into the frontier were called Pioneers.