Characteristics of New England
Physical Geography
 Jagged coastline – excellent harbors
 Some of world’s richest fishing and whaling grounds
 Hills and low mountains with narrow plains along coast
 Forests
 Soil – thin and rocky
 Long winter
Farming - Subsistence
Economic Activity - Tied to sea
 Fishing and Whaling
 Lumbering
 Shipbuilding
 Merchants – involved in shipping and trade
Where people live
 Towns
People
 English settlers
Characteristics of the Middle Colonies
Physical Geography
 Longer growing season
 Fertile soil – suited to grain
Economic Activity – Cash-crop farming
 Especially grain, called “breadbasket”
 Mills – grinding grain into flour
 export to all colonies - Colonists eat 1 lb. of grain/day
Where People Live
 Cities – Philadelphia, New York
 Large farms with villages
People – great diversity
 English - largest group
 Germans – next largest
 Also Dutch, Scots-Irish, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Swiss, and French
Characteristics of the Southern Colonies
Physical Geography
 Warm, year-round growing season
 Tidewater - a large, flat coastal lowland with some swampy areas
 Piedmont - area of rolling hills to west
Economic Activity –
 On coasts and rivers - Plantation farming
o grow rice and sugarcane, later cotton
o Crops required much labor - Slaves used as profit-producing
labor
 Piedmont - Small tobacco and subsistence farms
Where People Live - Plantations and subsistence farms
 self-sufficient - produce everything themselves
 Few villages or towns
 Big cities rare
People
 Small Planter Class - controls political and economic power
 African Americans slaves - 40% of the population
 Small farmers can’t compete and move west