Geography and climate are two basic factors shaping the lives of all societies throughout human history. They can greatly affect society’s political and economic structure, cultural habits, religious beliefs, and allegedly even the individuals’ personalities (Wei et al., 2017). In this regard, life in early American colonies is not an exception as the natural environment significantly influenced the production and trade, the number of slaves, and the overall life expectancy of the local people.
The average temperature, the existence of big rivers, frequency of precipitation, and availability of arable lands determined the main economic activities that prevailed in colonies. For instance, Southern States enjoyed warm weather and regular rainfalls, which allowed their inhabitants to grow tobacco, rice, sugarcane, and indigo; thus, agriculture was the most profitable industry in the region (Tindall and Shi, 2016). On the other hand, in New England, the soil was not that good for farming. However, this territory was abundant with forests, which gave rise to developed shipbuilding production. Additionally, another important industry was fishing in the sea, as New England’s coast had the biggest concentration of cod in the world. At last, the Middle Colonies’ economy was based on agriculture growing such grains as wheat, barley, and oats and the fur trade with Native Americans thanks to the existing rivers.
The dominant industries, in turn, also determined the prevalence of slaves in the region. New England had the least number of slaves compared to the Middle and South Colonies due to the small number of plantations there (Wilkinson, 2020). Instead, there was a large number of indentured servants that primarily were new immigrants. On the contrary, the South Colonies had the biggest number of slaves, whereas the Middle Colonies were in the “middle”.
Finally, the life expectancy of the settlers also varied in different regions, primarily explained by the climate conditions. For example, warmer southern weather facilitated the spread of certain deadly diseases such as malaria. As a result, people in South Colonies would be considered lucky to reach 50 for men and 40 for women. Conversely, in Middle Colonies and New England, where the weather was not that hot, the average life expectancy would reach 70 years.
References
Tindall, G. B., & Shi, D. E. (2016). America: A narrative history (10th ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.
Wei, W., Lu, J. G., Galinsky, A. D., Wu, H., Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., Yuan, W., Zhang, Q., Guo, Y., Zhang, M., Gui, W., Guo X., Potter, J., Wang, J., Li, B., Li, Han, Y., Lv, M., Guo, X…. & Wang, L. (2017). Regional ambient temperature is associated with human personality. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(12), 890-895.
Wilkinson, F. (2020). New England colonies’ use of slavery. National Geographic. Web.