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Plantations of New England

The Plantations of New England were a series of colonisation efforts by Europeans on the east coast of North America, a land that they called New England.

A seventeenth century map shows New England as a coastal enclave extending from Cape Cod to New France while its interior is rendered New Belgium, New Netherland and Iroquois Confederacy

The name New England dates to the earliest days of European settlement: in 1616 Captain John Smith described the area in a pamphlet "New England."[1] The name was officially sanctioned in 1620 by the grant of King James I to the Plymouth Council for New England.[2]

The region was subsequently divided through further grants, including the 1629 royal grant of "Hampshire" which was issued for "making a Plantation & establishing of a Colony or Colonyes in the Countrey called or knowen by ye name of New England in America."[3]

The role plantations played in New England's economy in the past was not as significant as the role agriculture played in Southern colonies. The soil was also very rocky and wasn't good for farming

  1. ^ Smith, John (1616). A Description of New England. the Lodge, in Chancery lane: Humfrey Lownes, for Robert Clerk.
  2. ^ "The Plymouth Colony Patent: The Finale". The Plymouth Colony Patent. Pilgrim Hall Museum. Archived from the original on 10 December 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  3. ^ "Grant of Hampshire to Capt. John Mason, 7th of Novemr., 1629". Avalon Project. Yale Law School. 18 December 1998. Retrieved 21 December 2011.

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