Farming In The Middle Colonies Essay

Agriculture, the act of farming and cultivating soil to grow certain items, played a large and important role in how each of the four colonial regions were developed and how the regions attained a unique identity.
The Middle colonies, comprised of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York,
had favorable and better climate, which lead to diversified farming. The diverse farming contributed to the production of grains and cereals, which was responsible for feeding the communities of slaves. The Middle colonies were the “breadbasket to the slave communities” before the Chesapeake colonies were because they figured out that tobacco wasn’t as profitable before earlier. Agriculture played significant role in developing the Middle colonies because the nice and friendlier conditions, due to growing grains, attracted many immigrants.The immigrant formed the middle class, which was very high in the Middle colonies. The influx of immigrants lead to many things like high

birth rates and the formation of numerous towns. Immigrant helped developed the Middle Colonies as a stable place to stay due to the thriving middle class of professionals and merchants. The thriving middle class was important in a developing colony because they were the “backbone” of the colonies, and they increased the literacy rate because they actually valued education.
Like the Middle Colonies, agriculture in the New England colonies, was diverse farming. Agriculture emphasized shipping, fish, and manufacturing because New England only had small family farms. However, the manufacturing was not industry like; it was trade manufactory that was very small, individual, house-like manufacturing. This caused the New England to play a huge role in the Triangle Trade because of their shipping of fish and other small products.
Meanwhile in the Southern colonies, agriculture was not as diverse. This was due to that fact that industry wasn’t as big because they solely relied on England for trading. Because they never diversified their agriculture, a planter culture arose, thus creating the social ladder of either opulent planters or impecunious slaves, removing any part of the middle class. Their agriculture was like the agriculture of the Caribbean in that they only grew sugar and later on rice. Sugar was essentially their cash crop because they made such a profit from it. The nature of the agriculture heavily affected the slave system because producing sugar was very demanding and tiring, thus the slave system in the Southern colonies had harsher climate and conditions compared to the slave system in Chesapeake.
The Chesapeake colonies, comprised of Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina, used agriculture initially for growing tobacco as their cash crop in the 1600s and the 1700s.

Producing copious amounts of tobacco required the use of indentured servants and later slaves. However, later they began growing and profiting from grain because the land for growing tobacco was not suitable anymore, and the market of tobacco wasn’t stable. Not only did they begin producing grain because of the decline of tobacco, but they also did it because they realized the slave colonies, especially the Carribean, needed grains for food because they only produced sugar. Agriculture contributed to racial division because a white farmer with little land could save up to buy a slave, and thus a poor white farmer is superior to a black. They did this so the white poor people would not gang up with the blacks to rebel. It also contributed to economy stabilized because they focus less on tobacco production and more on grain

production.
Agriculture was not only important in developing the colonial regions, but it also had an impact on the identity of the regions. Although each of colony was all formed differently, all ending up creating their own system of government because the development of agriculture caused the regions to go through many changes and transformations, which as a result, created unique identities. The colonial assemblies had a unique identity because they had more representation of the overall population and the opportunity for people to have a vote or say, which when compared to England, who had no representation ,was a big deal. This level of representation lead the Americans to feel like they were British citizens, but while at the same time have some sort of representation and freedom. The nature of the agriculture helped defined the identities of the four colonies. In Chesapeake, the identity was a small industry and stable region because they only produced steady amounts of grains. The Southern colonies were known as an overworking, but profitable region with horrible condition because they produced sugars that were but demanding to cultivate. Meanwhile in the Middle Colonies, it was a region known as the “breadbasket” because of its favorable conditions and little industry that produced grains to feed others. Lastly, New England had the identity of the Triangle Trade because they traded so much through fish, shipping, and manufacturing between the Europe and Africa.
After analyzing agriculture, one can clearly see that agriculture was not just farming and cultivating soil to grow products. It actually had other significant purposes and impacts to the colonist and the colonies. Agriculture was a big deal during the 18th century because of its importance to the development and identities of colonial regions.