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September 18, 2006 at 5:31 pm #342
Phidippides
KeymasterWhat were the geographic advantages of various regions for Colonial industries? Surely there had to be some advantages to settling in the northern area compares to the south, or vice versa.
September 19, 2006 at 3:43 am #6645Stumpfoot
ParticipantGood question, I'll have to think about that. I guess some of it would depend on what you did, education and personal taste. What might be an advantage for one could be a disadvantage for someone else.
September 19, 2006 at 3:47 am #6646Phidippides
KeymasterWell I think that crops such as tobacco, cotton, and citrus were southern crops, whereas something like corn and wheat might be more northern. Aside from these I am not entirely certain what the advantages of each region would be.
September 20, 2006 at 1:55 am #6647DonaldBaker
ParticipantThere were no advantages over each region per se, but each region created advantages exploitable for the colonists. In Virginia it was tobacco, in South Carolina it was indigo and tar, in Massachusetts it was fishing and oysters. Yet, each region had its disadvantages including different antagonistic native groups, climatic patterns such as cold in the North and oppressive heat and humidity in the South. I don't think the desirability of either region was any more or less than the other. In fact, New England probably resembled England more than the South did, but those who settled in South Carolina were already used to Barbados and its warm climate. Georgia was established as a debtor colony so those escaping debts found that colony more attractive. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess so to say any region was blessed with more advantages over the other would be very hard to defend.
September 20, 2006 at 3:52 pm #6648Phidippides
KeymasterYou say “those who settled in South Carolina were already used to Barbados and its warm climate”. Does this mean that settlers in the West Indies region immigrated to the Colonies during the early 1700s? Or when was this, and why did this migration occur from the Carribean?
September 22, 2006 at 5:22 pm #6649DonaldBaker
ParticipantYou say "those who settled in South Carolina were already used to Barbados and its warm climate".? Does this mean that settlers in the West Indies region immigrated to the Colonies during the early 1700s?? Or when was this, and why did this migration occur from the Carribean?
The migration occurred in the middle and late 17th-century after Captain Hilton mapped out the Carolina coast. The slavers of Barbados heard the good reports of Hilton and decided to try their hand at sugar cane production in South Carolina. Sugar did not prove to be as profitable there as the slave trade itself and the discovery of tar and pitch made South Carolina a haven for ship building products. Then the dye industry took off as Indigo was discovered to be a great dye producing agent. Furthermore, England wanted a colony that would be suitable to an expanding noble class. Large land grants were given to nobleman in the Carolinas as rewards of loyalty and service to the king (King Charles II).
October 7, 2006 at 3:05 am #6650Phidippides
KeymasterWhat exactly is “tar and pitch”? Of course I've heard of it before. What's it made of?
October 21, 2006 at 12:59 am #6651Stumpfoot
ParticipantI think its a by product of several differnt things like burnt wood, coal, peat and oil.
October 21, 2006 at 4:59 am #6652DonaldBaker
ParticipantI think its a by product of several differnt things like burnt wood, coal, peat and oil.
That's about right. The tar comes from the trees and is used to seal ship decks to make them watertight.
October 22, 2006 at 6:21 pm #6653Stumpfoot
ParticipantIt was very impotant product for sure.
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