hist.g5.f.eco.colonial_economy_atlantic_system
Analyze the colonial economy as part of the Atlantic system — three colonial regional economies (mercantile North, plantation South, mixed Mid-Atlantic), British mercantilism, the Navigation Acts, and the centrality of enslaved labor
Describe the three colonial regional economies and their integration into the Atlantic mercantile system: (a) NEW ENGLAND — small-farm subsistence agriculture + shipbuilding + shipping + cod fishing + rum distilling from Caribbean molasses + slave-trade participation by Newport RI and Boston MA shipping merchants; (b) MID-ATLANTIC — wheat 'bread-basket' colonies + Philadelphia and NYC ports + ethnic and economic diversity; (c) SOUTHERN — plantation tobacco (Chesapeake), rice and indigo (South Carolina Low Country), with enslaved African labor as the central economic input. Describe British mercantilism: the Navigation Acts 1651/1660/1663/1696 requiring colonial trade to be in British ships and routed through British ports; the assumption that colonies existed for the economic benefit of the mother country. Describe the role of enslaved labor in the colonial economy: by 1770 enslaved African Americans were ~20% of the colonial population and were the central economic input for the Southern plantation economy and for the New England shipping trade in molasses and rum. Apply Teaching Hard History K-5 KC9 (the colonial economy depended on slavery). Math integration: shilling/pence/pound currency arithmetic; cargo capacity ratios.
- Describe daily life across class, race, gender, and region in the 13 English colonies — the New England / Mid-Atlantic / Southern three-region framework
- Apply NCGE Five Themes of Geography (LOCATION / PLACE / HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION / MOVEMENT / REGIONS) at Atlantic World scale, including the Triangular Trade routes
- Believing the colonies were economically self-sufficient — they were tightly integrated into the Atlantic mercantile system.
- Believing slavery was a Southern issue only — New England shipping merchants and Newport RI in particular were major participants in the slave trade.
- Believing British taxation was the only economic grievance — the Navigation Acts also constrained colonial trade for ~130 years before the Stamp Act.