New England Colonies Essay

Colonists’ religion had a significant impact on the development of the colonies because it affected their social values. However, the quality of the soil, and the colonists’ access to water had a greater impact on the development of the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. Therefore, the geography was the primary factor in the development of the colonies. The New England colonies were hilly, forested, and had rocky soil causing a lack of grown-food production therefore their population grew slowly meaning small cities. Small tightly packed cities were affected by the Old Deluder Satan’s Act of 1647, communities with 50 or more families required schools to educate people how to read and write so they could understand the Bible. The
The Southern colonies’ cities were few and far apart because they needed room for the plantations they established to grow cash crops such as tobacco, indigo, and rice. Each plantation was a self-contained community which included a large house, fields, church, school, etc. To maintain their plantations they used indentured servants and/or slaves as laborers, unlike the New England colonies who didn’t because it didn’t make sense for them to do so economically. Slow moving rivers made for very few workshops, the main job was farming. Slow rivers also allowed for suppliers to ship their crops to markets, providing a route and easy means of travel. Geography was the primary factor in the development of not only the colonies, but many other settlements throughout history too. The Native American for example also developed based on the geography around them. The Plains Indians were a nomadic group of people following bison for food instead of farming the land around them because the bison were a quick-abundant source of food. There was an insufficient amounts of wood around them to build houses, so they resorted to using sticks to build teepees for housing, these were lighter and easier to carry as they