The Relationship between American Ideas of Freedom and the Existence of Slavery in the Colonies.Explain

The Relationship between American Ideas of Freedom and the Existence of Slavery in the Colonies
Historians have studied the relationship between the American ideas that led to the struggle for freedom and the existence of slavery in the colonies. They have come to the conclusion that there was a close relationship between the ideas of freedom and the existence of slavery in the colonies. Slavery created a serious paradox for the colonies that were fighting for liberty from the rule of the British. The surprising thing was that as slavery increased, the ideas of freedom also gained strength. It was surprising because the same people who were holding others as slaves wanted to be free from the British rule. However, the relationship changed when the colonies freed the slaves. The freed slaves contributed to the freedom ideas because they wanted land for settlement.
The colony of Virginia holds an important position on the existence of slavery and the emergence of the ideas of freedom. Virginia was a typical colony that practiced slavery because it relied on the growing of tobacco, which was its main cash crop. John Rolfe introduced tobacco in 1610. The cash crop thrived in Virginia but it did not perform well in other colonies, for example, Jamestown. Since the crop performed well in the colony, Virginia had many slaves that gave the manual labor on the Virginian tobacco farms. Virginia attracted many Britons who settled in the colony to practice tobacco farming. As the colony attracted more settlers, the demand for slaves also increased. The number of Africans who arrived in Virginia as slaves started growing by 1619. Interestingly, as the number of the colonial settlers and slaves grew, the people of Virginia developed the feeling that they needed freedom from the British so that they would benefit from the tobacco farming.
Another interesting thing was that the people who practiced slavery were the leaders of the freedom ideas. The leaders of the early America Republic came from Virginia. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are some of the early American leaders who came from Virginia. Interestingly, the two freedom leaders were tobacco farmers and they practiced slavery on their farms.
In the 1630s, however, a different trend was experienced in the relationship between the freedom ideas in the colony of Virginia and other British colonies. The conditions in the market of tobacco changed to the worse. The prices of the product fell, and the changes reduced the demand for slaves on the farms. The changes also led to the release of some of slaves. The freed slaves wanted land on which to settle. However, the British settlers occupied large portions of the American land. The freed salves strengthened the freedom ideas. The former slaves considered the America freedom as an idea that would create more space for their settlement. On the contrary, as the number of freed slaves increased, the British’s interest in the colony of Virginia reduced because tobacco had a bad performance in the market. Fewer British settlers migrated to USA. Also, Britain introduced laws that increased duties on the cash crop as its price fluctuated. In 1660, for example, the British parliament passed the law that required all the tobacco from the colonies to be shipped to England so that the king could tax the product. Such changes reduced the benefit that the Americans got from the cash crop, and they strengthened the need for freedom.
It is, therefore, true that there was a close relationship between the existence of slavery and the freedom ideas in the colonies. Ironically, as slavery increased, the ideas of freedom also increased. In the later phases, slavery decreased as the demand for slaves fell, but the freedom ideas increased. The leaders who wanted the American freedom were the same people who held slaves on their farms.
Essay #2
Compare and contrast the New England and Southern Colonies
There were clear differences between New England and the Southern colonies. The town of New England existed with the arrival of the Pilgrims. They reached America in 1620. At around 1630, the Puritans also settled in the town. The Puritans visited and settled in New England for religious reasons. The pilgrims were also known as the separatists. They broke from the Church of England because they wanted reforms. The puritans were the non-separatists. The issue of contention between the puritans and the pilgrims was the need to change (reform) the Anglican Church (Church of England) from the catholic elements. However, the two religious groups settled in New England. New England and the Southern colonies had various differences and similarities between the two parts. The comparison and contrast of the two parts involves issues such as demographics, industry, religion, settlement, and social structure, among others.
The demography (population) of New England was largely made of the English settlers who came to America to spread the gospel. The region did not attract many settlers because its soil was not suitable for agriculture. The soil was rocky and unsuitable for farming. The region’s population was smaller than that of the Southern colonies because many economic activities, especially farming, took place in the Southern colonies. The southern colonies had the population that was ever-increasing. The British settlers who wanted to practice the farming of tobacco and cotton (the main cash crops) continued arriving in the southern colonies, a factor that increased the population of the southern colonies. In addition to the settlers, there were the Native Americans and slaves in the southern colonies. As a result, the southern colonies had mixed populations while the population of New England was relatively uniform.
The economic activities of New England were mainly small-scale industries and fishing. The settlers specialized in fishing because the climate of New England was cold. The region did not support farming, and its occupants had to turn to small-scale industries which grew later. In the 1960s, when many slaves migrated from the southern colonies because of the falling demand, New England was one of their major targets because of its industries. Some of the industrial activities in New England included ship-building and the manufacture of metallic goods.
The southern colonies established earlier that the town of New England. The settlement of the British Settlers in Jamestown (1607) marked the beginning of the Southern colonies. Religion was not the main activity in the colonies because they practiced a lot of farming, unlike the English settlers in the town of New England who arrived in the town for religious reasons. The southern colonies developed the plantation system of economy, and they did not have industries like New England. The Plantation system grew with the introduction of the cash crops. The cash crops in the Southern colonies also grew the population of the slaves. The colonies had many slaves who were characteristically absent from the town of New England.
The settlement in the southern colonies tended to be scattered because of the nature of the farming activities that took place in the colonies. In New England, however, the growth of industrialization led to development of urban centers. The centers became densely populated with people living closer to each other than the sparsely populated southern colonies. The social structure of New England was largely uniform. There were no clear differences between social classes as it was in the southern colonies. The colonies had three distinctive classes of the wealthy British settlers, the middle class Native Americans, and the poor slaves.
In conclusion, New England and the Southern colonies had various differences with few similarities. The southern colonies established earlier than New England. In the beginning, religion was the preoccupation of New England because the first settlers arrived in the town for religious reasons. On the contrary, the southern settlers came to practice cash-crop farming. The economic activities of New England were ship building, manufacture of metallic goods, and fishing. The southern colonies relied on tobacco and cotton as their cash-crops. The colonies also had clear class differences and they were sparsely populated. The northern colonies became densely populated with the growth of urbanization (due to industrialization).