major history help!?

Question

ok how did the locations of philidelphia and new york help them to become major colonial trading centers?
things to think about:
-good harbbors
-the role of rivers
-ease of transportation.
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#2:
explain how and why agriculture developed differently in the middle and southern coloonies than it did in new england.

think about
-differences in soil qualiity
-regional climatic differences
-types of crops best suited for region

Answer 1

ARGGGHHHHH - - - hate it when people think the South is an Agricutural Mecca and the North a barren Desert ------ arghhhhhhh ...... The main difference in terms of Agrigulture was the culture of the people who settled the regions. Puritans took pride in family farms, individuals banding together to bring life from the soil. The Dutch and Quaker and German settlers who followed felt likewise. LONG ISLAND NEW YORK which is far North of the Mason Dixon line was America's Bread Basket a great place to grow wheat and grains and continues to be a Garden Spot in between the over developement of the region.

The South was largely settled by EXPLOITERS called Adventurers who first hoped to get Gold & precious stones from the soil, finding none, they turned to Plantations, trying to grow as much as possible of a crop that could bring in lots of profit especially when one uses slave labor. COTTON was NOT that Crop !!!!! Not in Colonial Times. First thing was to get People Hooked on Tobacco and Sugar and once England & France and then all of Europe clamored for sugar & tobacco the South became a viable agrigcultural region. Sugar never succeeded in America until after the Revolution but Tobacco and then Rice cultivation became staples along with indigo. But hey, what else are Slaves good for? North Carolina found the answer, arduous soul wrenching work wringing sap from Pine trees to make turpetine, we are talking toxic chemicals here, and in America in N C it was a big industry. Pine Oil and other products were big business and combined agrigculture with industry.

Soil confditions? Guess what (?) they vary often within the same five hundred acres North or South. Yes New England has patches of rocky soil, so do parts of Georgia and Kentucky yet non slave owning settlers pushed in for the promise of 'free land,' all they had to so was to drive off (kill) the natives...

People adopt crops to the climate and actually in terms of agriculture the North was far ahead of the South in Every way. Wheat & Grains and garden produce, plus cow & pig stockyards, the Puritans and the Quakers/Germans/Dutch pushed for Diversity - - - later on Irish & Scots brought the same notions to the South but they were treated like garbage by the Plantation Aristocracy (such as Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, the Henry s), and their farms remained hard scrabble local concerns instead of bringing in revenue from the World as did the New England and MIddle Colonies.

Culture not nature determined how agricultured developed differently in the North rather than the South.

As for question one / / \\ you already cited the most important fact - - - a Good well sited harbor though only Philladelphia had the audacity to be a River Town, whereas two other Great Ports, New York and Boston were mostly seaports, and in fact the value of Boston and Portland and New York and others was the Inter Coastal Trade & traffic which in time included commerce with the West Indies. Actually the best example of a River slash Seaport were Charleston and Savanah it was after the Revolution that New York turned the Albany into America's first truly water highway.

But what truly played a key role in cities becoming 'big & important' was defence. New York is a natural fortress as is Boston and though Philladelphia seems 'soft' its location within the boundary of two large rivers was good for defensive fighting. Charleston is another natural fortress as in Newport Rhode Island...

(actually New York could both feed itself and defend itself // did you know that Manhattan was a wheat & grain growing mecca in the 1750s?)


Peace..................... cccccccccccccccc bm

PS Spreedog you write wonderful answers BUT - - - wheat can be harvested by slaves just as well as cotton. What were Russian serfs under Stalin? Jest want to quash that bit of blarney. Mining can also be done by slaves - - - see the mines of South America under the Spanish)...

Answer 2

Lola, you answered the first part yourself - good harbors and river transport to the interior. In colonial times, there were few roads, and they were dirt tracks prone to mud in wet weather.
Water transport was the key to commerce at that time. Boston, Philadelphia, and New York were most suitable.
For example, timber from natural forests was a traded commodity. There were no trucks or trains to transport logs. They were floated down the rivers to port for sale. Any produce from the interior that might be traded with Britain
or Europe for manufactured goods was transported primarily by water.

#2 - Tobacco was the first cash crop of the south - Virginia and North Carolina, due to climate. Rice, indigo, and cotton would follow in South Carolina especially where colonial slavery was first extensively concentrated.
These were cash crops best handled within the plantation system which required field workers in large numbers. It was a natural system for slavery compared to the north where farming focused on food crops for subsistence and small volume additional income from sales.

Answer 3

#1: power from the river: trading, resources, protection, drinking water

#2:differtent weather, the north was colder and very factory run. whereas the south was hot and humid good for cotton and very family realated and traditional.