Question

How did interactions with the natural environment shape the institutions and values of various groups living on the north american continent?

Answer 1

Interactions with the natural environment led to the cultivation of multiple cash crops, therefore shaping the institution of slavery, and values favoring economic benefits first in the southern colonies, and then the southern states of the North American Continent.
The Early Colonies
In the Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia, warm weather and plentiful rainfall prompted the cultivation of America's first cash crops: tobacco, and rice. 
Virginia, as King Charles I put it, was "founded upon smoke."
Pine trees were in high demand for naval purposes. 
Thriving economies of the southern colonies led to voluntary indentured servitude.
These indentured servants occupied a "middle rank between slaves and free men."
Eventually, indentured servants accounted for half of the white settlers outside New England
The Institution of Slavery Begins
Slavery slowly developed in the Chesapeake Bay region during the early seventeenth century.
By 1660, colonial legislative assemblies had legalized lifelong slavery.
Slavery ContinuesSlavery continued to spread in the southern colonies and began to spread into what would become southern states.