At the South, agriculture was the chief occupation
and tobacco and rice were the two leading staples. These were produced
principally by the labor of negro slaves. There were also many indentured
servants at the South, where the dividing lines between the different
classes were most strongly marked.
Up to 1700 the history of each colony is practically that of a separate
unit. Almost all the colonies had trouble with Indians and royal governors.
Pirates, rapacious politicians, religious matters, or witchcraft were
sometimes sources of disturbance. All knew the hard labor and the
privations involved in subduing the wilderness and making permanent
settlements in a new land. History tells of the abandonment of many other
colonies and of the subjugation of many other races, but no difficulty and
no foe daunted this Anglo-Saxon stock.
In 1700 the population of New England was estimated at about one hundred
and ten thousand. In 1754, the beginning of the French and Indian War,
Connecticut alone had that number, while all New England probably had at
this time nearly four hundred thousand. The middle colonies began the
eighteenth century with about fifty-nine thousand and grew by the middle of
the century to about three hundred and fifty-five thousand.
Pages:
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77