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How Did Geography Affect Colonial America

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The Effects of Geography on Colonial America When first setting foot on the U.S Eastern seaboard, explorer George Percy documented that, “Wee (sic) could find… faire meddowes and goodly tall Trees… Fresh-waters… I was almost ravished at the first sight” (Percy “A Discourse of… Virginia by the English”). Percy and one hundred four other settlers would go on to establish Jamestown, the first successful British colony in the “New World”. Chosen for its geographical military advantages, lush vegetation, and seemingly stable, warm climate (Grymes “Jamestown - Why there?”), the location of Jamestown created a viable settlement, economy, and subsequent culture. Throughout the 1600’s, the colonies would expand tenfold, and the consequences of their varying topographical features would divide the land into three territories: New England, the Middle Atlantic, and the Southern colonies. The varied …show more content…
Blocked off to expansion by the Native American-inhabited Appalachian mountains, colonists used the waterways and burgeoning port cities of Charleston and Baltimore as passageways to international trade (Hamilton 6-7). Seizing Britain’s insatiable drive for tobacco, rice, and cotton, the South used large plantations to fuel their explosive economy. Yet out of this, “frenzy for limitless profit that comes from capitalistic agriculture...” (Zinn 28) came the institution of slavery. Millions of Africans were forcibly transported to America, using racial hatred to oppress the workforce. An intricate class system developed; wealthy European landowners ruled the South, followed by small white farmers, and then “inhuman” slaves. From geography came economy came culture, and in result came one of the most oppressive social constructs of all

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