Lesson 3: We Grow What We Know

“Life is a smoke! If this be true, Tobacco will thy Life renew; Then fear not Death, nor killing care,Whilst we have best Virginia here.”--A 17th century verse from an English tobacco advertisement.

A 17th century drawing of slaves processing the highly prized tobacco crop originally cultivated in the Virginia Colony.

How did tobacco--which we now consider to be dangerous and unhealthy--become the most important crop in the early English colonies? Why is it that certain places in the modern day United States produce lumber while others produce corn and cotton? Why was the fur from animals an international business in colonial times? How is it that though slavery could be found all over Colonial North America it was the most widespread in what is now called the American South in the United States. In this lesson you will learn how certain geographic factors such as climate, terrain, and soil (to name a few things) affected how the people that lived in places such as Virginia, New France, and Plymouth Colony interacted with their environments and ran their governments.

Standard: 10

The meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources changes over time.

Benchmark: 5.3.4.10.1

Essential Question:

How did geographic factors affect land use in the North American colonies?