The following paper discusses the ways in which American settlers viewed the land in the North and South and looks at their expectations about its proper use.
The following paper refutes the statement that slavery would have developed in the North if adventurers had landed in Plymouth instead of Jamestown by citing the varying ways in which people used the land as causes for either a wage-labor system or a slave-labor system. This paper will also explore the ways in which settlers viewed the landscape of the North and South as well as how the differing properties of each region;s land determined how it would be used by the settlers. Finally the writer discusses the ways in which the settler;s participation in a market economy led to uses of the land that differed from North to South depending on what sorts of crops grew on each type of land.
“By seeing the land as something to bring mankind benefit and profit to individuals, the settlers used to its fullest capacity and ended up causing serious soil depletion. Each farmer sought to make the greatest profit so that he and his family might have the luxuries that they desired. They weren’t so concerned with the preservation of the forests and wildlife as Henry David Thoreau was. Their view that nature was a hostile force to be conquered, subdued and profited from contrasted with his when he wrote, ;Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping and beautiful living be laid for a foundation: now, a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper; (Thoreau, 31).”