British Colonies in North America

British Colonies in North America
Despite their staggering differences economically, politically, and culturally, the British colonies of North America managed to pull together to resist the British policies that were threatening their ways of life. Each of the colonies struggled to inhabit and thrive in a new land; disease, Native American raids, and lack of knowledge about growing crops were a few things that stood in their way. After powering through years of hardship and labor, losing loved ones, colonies failing, and struggling to survive, the colonies finally got on their feet and began to grow from the foundations they had established.
Economically, the colonies were not similar; in fact, they had all built upon completely different resources depending on the fertility of the land. The English government made moving to the “New World” sound like an adventure and a second chance at life and this attracted many English colonists. The Chesapeake area was one of most popular places to emigrate because its thriving tobacco production was constantly in need of cheap labor. Indentured servants helped to sustain the colonies’ economic growth by keeping land and labor cheap. The New England colonists, however, realized that subsistence farming was good for their land. They also began to trade goods from England, such as fur, to the Native Americans and in return they received food. As these colonies grew, they began to incorporate new ways of providing for themselves, such as, fishing, lumbering, and selling slaves to the Chesapeake and Southern colonies. The Middle Colonies had fertile land and used it to grow cash crops, such as, corn and wheat. Much of their economic success was due to trading and selling these crops. ...

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...he king appointed officials to every colony to keep them in check. So, even though the colonies had their own governments, the appointed officials could always veto the decisions made by those governments. Also, the colonies were used to relying on each other for goods, so when they were pressured by the British policies, they bought goods from each other or other countries. Depending on each other for goods helped the colonies’ economies. Lastly, the colonies had been through everything together. They had all struggled through colonizing and trying to be successful, attacks from unfriendly Native Americans, and when England put them in the middle of the French and Indian War. These hardships brought them closer together. Despite the differences of the colonies, they were able to come together to defend what they had worked incredibly hard to establish.