Native American and Colonial Agriculture

This chapter describes the state of Native American agriculture when European settlers arrived in the New World in the early seventeenth century, and how the two cultures interacted in the first few decades. The settlers’ crop and livestock choices depended on whether they sought help from their indigenous neighbors, and on the climate and growing conditions where they farmed. Farmers’ ability to produce and trade surplus products domestically and other nations depended on their access to waterborne transportation, as the poor quality of roads prior to the American Revolution largely precluded overland shipment of goods. The Navigation Acts passed by the Parliament limited their ability to trade with countries other than Great Britain, and these restrictions were one of the factors that led to the Revolution.