Changes in American Agriculture
Exploring Changes after European and Native American Contact
Oct 6, 2008
When European settlers arrived in America, they faced several new concerns. Unaccustomed to the difficult land and the more varied climate of the New World, it was difficult for the Europeans to create flourishing settlements. However, a group of natives already in America did know how to effectively utilise the land and lived quite successfully from it. The Native Americans had rich artifacts to exchange with Europe and, likewise, the Europeans would greatly influence Native American cultures. From the time of contact and beyond, the Europeans and the natives experienced dramatic changes, specifically in agriculture.
Initially, European colonists had a very difficult time cultivating a strange new land. Colonists, such as those in Jamestown, could not or would not farm and thus resorted to "continually demanding corn from the [Native Americans]...". The settlers relied heavily on Native American assistance and until they learned to farm the land, it was the Native Americans who supplied the colonists with food. The natives also influenced farming methods that enabled the colonists' development. European farming techniques required intense labour from "five in the morning to seven or eight at night from mid-March through mid-September..." whereas the Native Americans' method required far less work, rendering it far more efficient.
While the Europeans did not adopt all of the Native Americans' farming techniques, they did incorporate certain key aspects. The colonists quickly learned that corn was a steady food source and began to plant it as a main crop. In Virginia, an "abundance of corn and...fish..." saved the settlers from starving. Native American crops, such as corn, fish, and tobacco, ceased starvation in Jamestown. European settlers also learned to burn the "forest undergrowth much as the [Native Americans] had...done..." to create grazing lands for their cattle, placing a European spin on a Native American technique. Once European settlers learned how to cultivate the New World based on Native American practises, colonial settlements boomed into colonial towns.
In order to create a more familiar feeling in these New World towns, Europeans created boundaries. However, Native Americans were "uncomfortable and unfamiliar..." with property lines, which resulted in many disputes. Colonists found that the Native Americans either did not understand or did not respect the European concept of property. When colonists brought livestock to America, they also initiated a "departure from [the Native American] subsistence practices" the settlers had previously used. The Europeans kept their animals inside fences but the Native Americans did not understand European-style ownership and hunted the animals anyway. Therefore, the Europeans had to adjust their court system in order to encompass the growing problem of intentional or unintentional property damage. Since the settlers needed the ability to try the natives in court, they used their laws to do so. When Europeans brought their old and familiar property concepts to the New World, they altered their way of life to accommodate differences with Native American cultures.
Just as the Europeans changed their agricultural existence, the Native Americans altered their farming techniques as the colonists took over their lands. In Virginia, the Powhatan people farmed not only for themselves, but also for the hungry colonists. At first, the Native Americans gave the settlers food and assisted them, but the natives certainly would not freely continue helping the colonists when the Europeans became a threat; the indigenous peoples were forced to provide food, which meant they had to produce more to account for the loss of their crops.
However, this was made quite difficult due to European diseases wreaking havoc on the native population. The depopulation resulted in fewer hunters and farmers to provide food. "With only the sick...to help the sick..." (Cronon, 88), the Native American villages could not feed themselves, which made it difficult to recover from illnesses, which resulted in more deaths. William Bradford stated the natives could neither "...make a fire nor...fetch...water..."; no one could provide food for the ill, much less prepare it. The European diseases all but wiped out the native population, drastically changing the manpower with which the Native Americans farmed.
Another agricultural result of European colonists inhabiting the New World was the alteration of hunting. Previously, Native American males hunted to provide the population with an additional food source. However, Europeans bought the pelts of animals and changed hunting from a food source to an economic commodity. The new trade in furs and goods changed "the ways [Native Americans] organised subsistence..." by creating an economic use for what had previously been food. Due to cultural contact with the Europeans, Native Americans farming and hunting techniques changed radically.
In addition to the change of their cultivation techniques, the Native Americans had to adjust to European boundaries. The colonists built their farms very close to the Native Americans' homes, which greatly upset the natives. Whether in retaliation, such as the Catawba youth "raiding nearby farms and hunting cattle...", or out of confusion over ownership rights, the natives hunted European farm animals. To Native Americans, "whoever killed [the livestock] owned them..." and since hunters could travel to domesticated animals, they considered it culturally acceptable to kill the Europeans' farm animals. Damaging the colonists' property resulted in European legal action against the Native Americans. Thus, the onset of property disputes also resulted in a new, European, legal system for the natives. The Native Americans had to abide by the European definition of property and comprehend that they could not hunt as they once did.
Cronon, William. Changes in the Land. Union Square West: Hill and Wang, 2003.
McConville, Brendan. Lecture. Boston University, Boston. 11 Feb. 2005.
Merrell, James H. Colonial America: Essays in Politics and Social Development. Ed. Douglas Greenberg, Stanley N. Katz, and John M. Murrin. New York City: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
Morgan, Edward S. American Slavery American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. New York City: W.W. Norton & Company, 1975.
Richter, Daniel K. Colonial America: Essays in Politics and Social Development. Ed. Douglas Greenberg, Stanley N. Katz, and John M. Murrin. New York City: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
