Most of the New England towns were self sufficient. Early towns were built along a narrow road. Each family had a house with a small garden on the road. A meeting house stood in the center of the town. The meeting house was used for worship. They were also, used for town meetings. During the town meetings, male land owners could take part in the government. There were fields near each town which grew crops. In the center of the town, there were common of grassy areas where the herds grazed. In the town , there are important people. The herder took care of the herds on the common.
The constable was a police officer. The leader of towns militia which was a volunteer army, drilled the men and boys on the common at least once a year. The market towns were developed in the middle colonies. Farmers traveled to the market town to trade farm produce which is grains, fruits, and vegetables. A general store sold imports which were goods brought to the colonies from other countries. The farmers carried their produce to the market and brought back imports in Conetoga wagons. A Conestoga wagon is a big covered wagon. The county seats were developed in the southern colonies.
A county seat is a main town in each county. A county is a large part of the colony. Colonies with cash crops would take their crops to the county seat several times a year to sell them and buy imports. The cities were developed in the middle 1700’s along the Atlantic coast where there were good harbors. Ships docked at these harbors and brought imports from England and left with exports from the colonies. An export is goods that were to be sold to other colonies. The first cities were New York City, Philadelphia, and Charleston. These triangle trade routes linked Britain, the British colonies and Africa.
These countries traded with each other. Most cities grew because of this trade. A plantation is when farmes planted cash crops on large tracks of land along waterways. They had many buildings. The main building was the plant house. Servants and slaves lived in small buildings. The kitchen was in a separate building. There were sheds for storing crops. There were barns for livestock. There were carpenter and blacksmith shops. Plantation owners would send their products with a list to England of what they wanted the broker to buy for them.
A broker is a person who is paid to buy and sell for someone. The broker would sell what the plantation owner said to, and buy what he wanted, and send it back on a ship. An indentured servant would agree to work for someone without pay for a certain time to pay off their debt. Some indentured servant’s were prisoners sent to the colonist as punishment to pay for their crimes. Slaves were often people who were kidnapped in Africa and sold to the people in the Colonies. Plantations were far apart from one another. Many times ships carrying cash crops sunk at sea.
The Planter’s wife had to feed, clothe, and provide medical care for everyone living on the plantation. Large plantations had their own small schools to teach reading and writing. At age 12 or 13, children might attend special town schools. After that boys went to college in Britain or in the colonies. At age 12 or 13, girls stopped going to school. There were no schools for servants or slaves. I think it must be very hard to work on a plantation beacuse it is hard to keep it running correctly. I am happy our country does not have slaves. I think that the girls should have been able to go to school to.
