Settling the New World from the New World

In the 1600’s the Spanish claimed the coast of North America but only occupied Florida and they were getting weaker militarily. The English had colonized the Virginia area which was far enough away from the Spanish and was producing tobacco. Meanwhile Barbados in the Caribbean was producing huge amounts of sugar for the English and was quickly becoming overpopulated by English wanting to cash in on the sugar crop. All of this left overpopulation in Barbados and no European settlements in the Carolina’s. So….The Carolina’s were initially settled by people sailing inĀ from Barbados. The Spanish tried to evict them but did not have the military strength to do so. The settlers in Carolina then learned how to grow rice from their African slaves who knew how to grow it in Africa. Rice eventually surpassed tobacco to become the second largest crop from the America’s trailing only sugar.

(Book – American Colonies:The Settling of North America – Alan Taylor)

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