Introduction

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Chapter 2: American Society in the Making

Introduction
The many different expectations that colonists brought to the New World, the various environments they entered there, and their distance from Europe combined to produce a number of distinct patterns of social development in America. In New Mexico and Florida, Franciscan friars established missions and sought to Christianize and "civilize" the Indians while putting them to work building, mining, and farming. British North America could be divided into three regional societies. The southern colonies, comprising the Chesapeake Bay area, the Carolinas, and Georgia, were predominantly agricultural; land itself turned out to be the major asset of the area and the property owners found that they could realize the most profit by cultivating high-yield cash crops such as tobacco and rice. These crops were also extremely labor intensive, however, and the proprietors turned to indentured servants and then increasingly to African slave labor to work the fields. With such large tracts of land under cultivation, settlements in the South tended to be spread out, and this coupled with the generally high mortality rate and captive labor population of the region translated into social instability. At perhaps the opposite end of the spectrum stood the New England colonies, which, as a result of their settlers' emphasis on families, religious and secular covenants, and strict mores, enjoyed a very stable, cohesive social structure. Like the South, New England’s economy was primarily agricultural, though on a far smaller scale: cash crops were not an option. But with its many towns and educated populace, New England also supported merchants, educational institutions, and some artisans. The middle colonies—New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—were home to the most diversified colonial economies; farmers, merchants, and artisans were all well represented. These colonies were also more ethnically and religiously diverse than their neighbors to the north and south, as well as more politically sophisticated. Whereas in the southern colonies settlers tended to defer to their appointed leaders or the landed gentry and New England’s elections generally granted power to the wealthy and socially prominent, the middle colonies, where most males could vote, not so readily ceded power in their representative assemblies to the rich or favored; in fact, the John Peter Zenger libel trial in Pennsylvania illustrates their unique political culture.

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