Fur Traders and Settlers in North America

By: SHEA & MAL

The Fur Trade

- Europeans first came to the Americas for fish- Later they realized that Fur brought more profits- Thus creating, the American Fur-trade- Trading Basins in the Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay- Trading Posts start to form all around the northern parts of North America

-Owners: Royal Agents, adventurers, business men, and settlers- Goods: wool blankets, iron pots, firearms, and distilled spirits- Exports consumed mostly by Europe

- Goods include: Beaver Hats and Fur clothing

Effects of the Fur Trade

- The Fur Trade caused much conflict- Beaver population rapidly disappear- Natives depended on beaver skin too- Invasions & Poaching occurred- War within different territories- Competitions in European States- Indigenous people get involved with rival’s of their patronsExample: - Iroquois people (allies of the Dutch) went to war with the Hurons- Army equipped by the Dutch- They sought to exterminate Hurons and gain more land- Hurons survived the war but Huron power in the North of the Great Lakes were gone.

- European settlers and cultivators removed natives of the lands to build plantations- Early colonists would not have survived without the help of the natives and their crops such as:- maize- game- fish- Later French and English migrants became stabilized and they would distinguish(success) themselves from the natives.

Settler Society

CASH CROPS• Settlers in the new world begin to grow crops native to the

Americas and market them in Europe

• HUGE success with tobacco in the English colonies of Virginia and Carolina; the addictive plant became extremely popular with Europeans; more than 3,000,000 lb exported in 1638

• Other cash crops were rice and cotton

• Large land masses were used to cultivate the crops: PLANTATIONS* that required much LABOR………….

INDENTURED LABOR• Plantation owners recruited INDENTURED SERVANTS

from Europe to meet the high demand for labor to cultivate their crops

• INDENTURED SERVANT- a person willing to exchange a number of years of labor for their passage to the new world; after they have served their time, most would gain their freedom

Slavery in North America

• Labor also came from the Atlantic slave trade

• Slaves from Africa were brought to North America and worked as indentured servants with other Europeans, until Virginia law came into passing and recognized all blacks as permanent slaves in 1661

• After 1680, indentured servants were all replaced by African slaves

• Slave labor not prominent in northern colonies since land and climate were not suitable for labor intensive cultivation

• Traded sugared distilled rum for African slaves

……………the END.