Question

1. Give the date the colony was founded and who it was founded by. 2. Describe the main reason it was founded. 3. Give the climate and geographic characteristics (e.g, hot summers, long winters, near ocean, rivers….) of the colony. 4. Discuss the main source(s) of income and how the climate or location impacted that. 5. Discuss whether or not slave labor was used in the colony.

Answer 1

The first of the so-called "Thirteen Colonies" was founded in 1607 when, with the permission of the English King James I, a group of settlers sent by the Virginia Company of London, forming Jamestown, in which they established a fort (to resist the native attacks), and after years of harsh conditions managed to prosper the settlement and surrounding land, being a major exporter of tobacco to the English metropolis towards the decade of the 20's. they were divided into three geographical regions: the colonies of New England, the colonies of the center and the colonies of the south. The New England colonies were rocky terrain, which made agriculture difficult. the colonies of the center provided deep and safe ports for ships. The geography of the land presented coastal plains, with soft hills inland and mountains farther from the shore. The land was rich and fertile for agriculture, which the settlers achieved successfully in this region. The southern colonies had a broad coastal plain that led to rolling hills. The mountainous regions were in the western sections of the southern colonies. The land was fertile for agriculture and the season was long due to the climate.  The economy of the 13 colonies was excellent with good agriculture and livestock, good craftsmanship and fishing. Agriculture was notable both in the production of marketable surpluses, as well as in subsistence ones. In the southern colonies tobacco was highlighted, this required a lot of slave or rented labor. The livestock of the north was important livestock.  The southern colonies: their main economic activities were related to the cultivation of raw materials (tobacco, soy, cotton, corn and wheat). Thanks to their good soil they also produced rice. They were based on agriculture, livestock, pig breeding and milk production.   Slavery was legal in those times and was practiced in each of the Thirteen Colonies. In most places they were house servants or farm workers. It was of economic importance in the export-oriented tobacco plantations of Virginia and Maryland, and the rice and indigo plantations of South Carolina. About 287,000 slaves were imported into the Thirteen Colonies, or 2% of the 12 million slaves brought through Africa.