Cross curricular History article: How diversity post-colonisation elicited a change in land use between Northern and Southern USA, with a particular focus on Massachusetts and Virginia

How diversity post-colonisation elicited a change in land use between Northern and Southern USA, with a particular focus on Massachusetts and Virginia

Faiz

Background1 17th century England was a tumultuous time period and showed a clear divide between the rich and poor. As wool brought in better prices than crop farming, farmers who then switched their production away from crops would soon run out of food, and the strong belief in mercantilism (the idea that hoarding all gold and silver in the motherland would bring prosperity) also required new colonies to feast on. This meant that there were two different types of Anglo settlers in America, in 1606; those who needed new virgin land to start new lives; and those who needed new land to generate more gold for their patrons. The slave trade was also well under way (since around 15622) and would be critical in shaping the agricultural climate of Southern USA in the years which followed.

Diversity in climate and land type

The Northern New England state of Massachusetts had been unfit and unfertile for farming since the Ice Age3, when enormous glaciers heaved from North to South, transporting all the fertile topsoil to the Middle and Southern states. The short distance to the freezing Arctic Circle (currently only a three hour flight from Boston, MA) also prevented the farming of more exotic and expensive crops. The Appalachian Mountain Range4 , and its uneven, dry, and rocky land (relief is sometimes higher than 1000 metres above sea level) significantly hindered any farming exploits of Northern settlers. The warm months were short, meaning the growing season was too brief to grow cash crops, like tobacco and indigo.

Whereas, in the Southern state of Virginia in 1732, it was an entirely different picture. It was a big receiver of the benefits of glaciers pushing fertile topsoil into the South and being close to the Tropic of Cancer brought an almost subtropical climate. The warm months and growing season were long (a summer of 28 degrees Celsius stretched into October5), making the economically vital growth of cash crops viable and easier, as they could be grown all year round. The presence of many piedmonts, rich in alluvial soil, added even more possibilities for plantation farming, and this is precisely what occurred.

Diversity of settlers and industry

A clear demonstration of diversity is shown in Massachusetts. The difficult to tame, unfertile land was unappealing to wealthy English investors, and subsequently received the aforementioned poor settlers, looking for a new life. The area was a place for people of all economic backgrounds and was rewarded with a huge population of around 250,0006 by 1776. The area was initially settled by Puritan pilgrims from England (21,000 Puritans came to New England from 1630 to 1640), who had little money but made up for that in drive. Their Protestant belief that they had God-given talents was used to create profit through ingenious methods. They were good examples of capitalists, who saved and invested money after making it. This meant that they took advantage of the natural environment, to create an extremely diverse economy and amount of industries. They were especially proficient in shipbuilding, fishing and logging7 (using a sample size of 144 towns in 1770, there was found to be a mean of 394 trees per town8, allowing for increased shipbuilding as well). By 1631, craftsmen were building fishing and trading vessels, and by 1660, the towns of Newburyport, Ipswich, Gloucester, Salem, and Boston lead the ship building industry throughout the colonies. By 1776, one third of all British commercial ships had been built in New England9. This diversification of industry and flexible land usage paved the way for a huge growth in state GDP, over time, and allowed institutions like Harvard University to thrive.

However, a clear lack of diversity in settlers is shown in Virginia. This is due to two reasons. Firstly, the lush, fertile, virgin lands were the dream of the British aristocracy, who desired mercantilistic profits from the untouched soil. Secondly, following the English Civil War (1651), the landed gentry were forced to exile to the escape of the US South10. Their already large amounts of wealth shaped the land usage of the area for centuries to come. These cavaliers utilised slavery and plantation farming as their key methods of farming. They saw the exorbitant prices of cash crops, like rice and tobacco, and started huge plantations to mass produce them. Typical plantations ranged from 500 to 1000 acres, producing around 5000 plants per acre11(with an estimated 500 trees having to be cleared per acre), with unpaid slaves (working 18 hours a day) being key to making profits. From 1750 to 1755, around 259,000 barrels of tobacco were produced in four different counties of Virginia12. However, following the creation of the cotton gin (1794), which made cotton farming extremely efficient, a huge shift to the industry occurred in the American South. Unfortunately for Virginians, the almost 150 years of exhaustive, unsustainable farming methods and lack of agricultural diversity left the soil unusable, and many wealthy plantation owners left the state to pursue cotton further West (from 1790 to 1840, more people moved out of eastern Virginia than all other original states north of Maryland13).

Diversity of workers following the Civil War

Following a Civil War that the proabolitionist Massachusetts had helped win, their economy was able to flourish due to the diverse immigrant (especially Irish) and African American labour. The industrial revolution had been key in shifting the State’s land use from local logging and fishing businesses to building national factories and workhouses, and by 1850, the Boston Associates Manufacturing Company was responsible for producing one fifth of the entire country’s cotton14. All labourers suffered under the same cruel, unforgiving capitalist factory owners, and when the South was stripped of its political and economic power, the North became the prop of the US economy, requiring intense workdays and output. Wealthy landowners, either gaining wealth from pre-existing businesses in the North or even some lucky former plantation owners from the South, moved into Massachusetts and built even more factories on the land, industrialising the land from rural and small towns to huge factory cities, in a matter of 50 years.

The Southern State of Virginia, however, was at the devastating losing end of the Civil War, and their post-bellum life clearly demonstrated this. There was a lack of diversity in workers and the farming methods utilised. The once regal lives of plantation owners

and slave holders collapsed once they had to release all of their slaves (which were considered economic assets). Money had no value, as the Union rejected Confederate currency and closed Virginian banks15. During the Civil War, as well, the lack of cotton production and exports from the USA was replaced by the output of other countries. In foreign areas tied to the European economy, cotton production skyrocketed, as shown when “Brazilian cotton production doubled, Indian production quadrupled, and Egyptian production quintupled16.” In response to this destruction of the agricultural economy, former plantation owners utilised the method of sharecropping, where free African Americans rented their land, and employers paid for their tools, cotton seeds and living quarters. In return, the workers ‘just’ had to give a portion of their profits back to the owner17 . However, the price of cotton was rapidly falling, and sharecropping committed African Americans to debt (when they could not pay back the prices of tools etc.) and tied Southern land usage to the declining cotton industry. In 1890, in Halifax County, VA, only 14% of African American families actually owned their own land18 and were forced to use the land they rented to repay landowners.

Conclusion

Overall, the Northern State of Massachusetts and its cold, wet climate was never suitable for largescale cash crop farming. Instead, the ingenuity of its Puritan settlers and allowed for other industries, like shipbuilding (due to the large amount of oak forests), to flourish on the land and using resources they had at their disposal, creating an immensely diverse economy. Following a victory in the Civil War, Massachusetts transformed its rural, small town land use of logging and fishing, into looming industrial cities (like Boston), producing anything from cotton to wagon wheels, with diverse labourers. However, the Southern State of Virginia and its warm, lush climate was perfect for the mass production of cash crops, on plantations. Wealthy aristocrats used previously accumulated wealth to work slaves on their land, turning forests into cotton fields, and funding the US economy. However, this exhaustive, unsustainable farming method and lack of diversity in crop selection meant that by the 1800s, the land was devoid of any fertility, resulting in a mass exodus from Virginia. Following a brutal loss in the Civil War, the regal lifestyle of plantation owners transformed into lives of struggle overnight, and the use of mass sharecropping committed the South to using the land for a failing cotton industry (even the more diverse workforce could not prevent this reliance), further exhausting the land, making Westward expansion into new virgin lands all the more appealing.

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