Three Worlds, Three Views: Culture and Environmental Change in the Colonial South | National Humanities Center

TeacherServe Essays

Three Worlds, Three Views: Culture and Environmental Change in the Colonial South

By Silver, Timothy

For nearly three hundred years before the American Revolution, the colonial South was a kaleidoscope of different people and cultures. Yet all residents of the region shared two important traits. First, they lived and worked in a natural environment unlike any other in the American colonies. Second, like humans everywhere, their presence on the landscape had profound implications for the natural world. Exploring the ecological transformation of the colonial South offers an opportunity to examine the ways in which three distinct cultures—Native American, European, and African—influenced and shaped the environment in a fascinating part of North America.

Read More
Subjects

History / Environment and Nature / Education Studies / American South / Thirteen Colonies / American History / Indigenous Americans / Agriculture / Slavery / Environmental History /