Chesapeake Bay Colonies Research Paper

The colonists that came to North America were ill-prepared in a number of ways, and they had to adapt their original expectations after they arrived. The combination of issues with labor, commerce, government, and Native Americans created a uniquely American identity.

One main problem was the amount of energy needed to develop the new colonies. The development projects, such as deforestation, planting the fields, and harvesting them, required a vast amount of workers, and there simply weren’t enough workers to do the job. Different areas dealt with the shortage differently. The Chesapeake Bay area used indentured servants. Indentured servants were workers who came from Europe to work for a person for a tenure up to seven years, at which point he would be set free, and possibly given land as a reward. The Carolinas imported slaves from West Africa to develop the land and work on the large plantations. New York used a system called tenancy: dividing up large plots of land into smaller plots of land that would be rented out on a long-term basis. The Middle Colonies used a combination of tenancy and servitude to provide the labor necessary for development. Since New England lacked a cash crop, the residents of New England worked on

For example, Virginia was originally supposed to find gold. Once that failed, they tried to plant silk and citrus fruits, which also failed. Eventually, Virginians planted tobacco which grew successfully and they were able to sell tobacco at a high price. Cash was scarce in the colonies, so most people traded goods or used personal credit, a system where each person wrote down debts they owed to different people. In the beginning, the economy was almost entirely English based. Almost everything that was manufactured came from England, including the ships that made the transatlantic voyage. As a result, the colonies were underdeveloped and lacked internal