Religion's Role in Early American Exploration and Development

Throughout human history, religion has played a fundamental role in societal development, regardless of the culture. Christianity, in particular, has profoundly shaped the last two thousand years of history and continues to do so today. This holds true in the case of European development and exploration of the New World. As exploration in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries flourished, many countries set out to declare land on behalf of their country, and in an effort to bring honor to their God. When English settlers first developed colonies in New England, one of their goals was to share the word of God with the Native Americans they encountered. This drastically conflicted with the views of the Native Indians, and completely altered the development of North America. European religious views in early North American exploration set the tone for America’s development into a commodification driven society that exploited the environment as a means of economic potential.
The first successful colonial

establishments of the New World came in 1620, when English settlers landed in what is now called Plymouth, Massachusetts. Europeans that came to explore the new land were motivated by greater religious freedom, adventure, and opportunities for individual economic advancement. Upon arriving in America, the settlers would have their first encounters with Native Americans, who were much different in nature than their English counterparts. As was described by William Bradford, governor and historian of Plymouth colony at the time, New England was a “hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men.” Unlike the Europeans, the Indians lived in harmony with their environment and held a reverence for nature, believing that they were born of the earth and meant to be stewards of the ecosystem they coincided with. In seeing how different these wild people were, the English saw their colonization as an opportunity to spread the gospel to the Indians. In his work Old South Leaflets, John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony cites biblical ideologies as his reasoning for establishing a plantation in New England. He sets the grounds for their settlement, which includes “charitie to our neighbors [who are] impoverished by decay of Trade and lefte destitute of hope of imployment in tyme to come.” Through this statement, Winthrop displayed the belief that the Native Americans were impoverished simply because they lived differently than the Europeans. Additionally, Winthrop cites the most basic Christian ideology, which has significantly impacted the way they viewed the environment: “The whole earth is the lords Garden and he hath given it to the sonnes of men, with a generall Condition, Gen 1, 28. Increase and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it, which was againe renewed to Noah, … that men might enjoy the fruites of the earth.”5 The main justification that colonists had in transforming the environment was that the land was a gift from God, and the Native Americans were not using it in the way God intended. With this justification and sense purpose, it only made sense that the colonists would try to introduce their ways of life to the Native Americans.
Within only a hundred years, the Europeans had managed to drastically transform the environment and Indian lifestyles as well. By the eighteenth century, settlements had also greatly progressed and developed along the east coast toward the south, all the while pushing the Indians from their native land. Europeans had introduced a variety of non-native crops to the land, such as wheat, barley, oats and rye. They had also introduced livestock such as cows, oxen, sheep, chicken, and other various animals. These changes conflicted with the native ecosystem, which was not accustomed to these strange plants and animals. More importantly, the English brought disease pathogens that the Native Americans had never been exposed to, which caused many of them to become ill and die. In 1705, a Virginia farmer Robert Beverly described the state of Native Americans, which had drastically changed from when Europeans first arrived. Beverly writes,
They have several accounts reason to lament the arrival of the Europeans, by whose means they seem to have lost their Felicity, as well as their Innocence.
The English have taken away great part of their Country, and consequently made every thing less plenty amongst them. They have introduced Drunkeness and Luxury amongst them, which have multiplied their Wants, and put them upon desiring a thousand things, they never dreamed of before.
In such a short matter of time, the Europeans had managed to completely alter the native ecosystem that had been present before their settlements. Furthermore, by this time, sustenance farming had begun its transition into market farming, and the commodification of both land and humans drastically increased. Since the land was so arable, many settlers found great success in their farming. Thus, the appearance of cash crops began almost immediately with the colonies that formed in the early seventeenth century. Tobacco was one of the first cash crops to appear in high quantity, and it was praised for the high quality that was producible. For the two decades prior to the cultivation of tobacco crops, European settlers had suffered greatly and experienced a difficult time adapting to the conditions of the New World. Settlers saw the monetary potential of tobacco as a way to trade with England for other manufactured goods, which would improve their lifestyles greatly. The demand for this crop helped bring profits to American colonies and allowed colonies to further develop and begin to thrive.
In addition to tobacco, the cultivation of other cash crops such as rice and cotton later began to increase in demand, further taking a toll on the environment. In 1761, the governor of South Carolina at the time, James Glen, describes the increased value of rice crops in his work A Description of South Carolina. Glen writes, “Rice last year bore a good Price, being at a medium about Forty-five Shillings of our currency per Hundred Weight; and all this Year it hath been Fifty-five Shillings and Three Pounds; though not many Years ago it was sold at such prices low Prices as Ten or Twelve Shillings per Hundred.” Similarly, cotton became a popular crop toward the turn of the eighteenth century when industrialization was just on the horizon. While both lucrative and a crucial aspect to American history, the widespread domination of cash crops throughout American plantations quickly led to soil degradation and depleted land. Tobacco, in particular, was extremely demanding on the land and quickly caused soil and mineral depletion, making it difficult to successfully produce other crops. A high quality tobacco plant typically could only be produced in three or four crop seasons, after which the farmer would then have to switch to corn and wheat products, and then later to pine, sedge and sorrel growth which were characteristically agricultural products grown in “sour lands”. As Avery Craven makes note in his essay, “Tobacco and Soils in the Chesapeake”, by the turn of the nineteenth century, new settlers would describe the land they surveyed as “worn out, washed and gullied, so that scarcely an acre could be found in a place fit for cultivation.”
The rampant commodification of agriculture that ensued was deemed acceptable to colonist according to God’s will, and therefore there seemed to be no moral remorse expressed from these actions.

In addition, slavery also grew as a commodity for colonists in the seventeenth century. The practice of slavery by Europeans in North America began around 1619 when the first Africans were shipped over seas to the Chesapeake Bay area. Initially, Africans that were brought to America were considered indentured servants, not slaves. The typical ruling was that they would not serve longer than seven years before being be released and integrated into the colony. This coincided with the Biblical command of the Old Testament that stated, "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything.” However, it was not long until this ruling changed and African and Indians became expected to serve for

life.