The book argues that all eighteenth-century farmers sought first and foremost to provide basic subsistence for their families. The first aim of all farmers was self-provisioning. Even large planters who exported tobacco or wheat and purchased luxuries sought to provision themselves with their own labor on their own land. All farmers also engaged in trade to obtain what they could not make for themselves. They were subsistence and market farmers at the same time. Besides providing for themselves year by year, farmers hoped to set up their children on farms. With older children coming into the w ... More

The book argues that all eighteenth-century farmers sought first and foremost to provide basic subsistence for their families. The first aim of all farmers was self-provisioning. Even large planters who exported tobacco or wheat and purchased luxuries sought to provision themselves with their own labor on their own land. All farmers also engaged in trade to obtain what they could not make for themselves. They were subsistence and market farmers at the same time. Besides providing for themselves year by year, farmers hoped to set up their children on farms. With older children coming into the workforce, farmers could acquire enough to provide for those children as they left the family. Tragically, family farming with its assurance of security required ever more land, resulting in the relentless expulsion of Native Americans from their possessions. Within this basic North American farming system, agricultural regimens differed greatly from section to section. Slavery prevailed from Georgia to Maryland because warm winters allowed farmers to use their work force all year around, justifying the cost of slaves. From Pennsylvania northward, farmers relied on family or on cottagers who could be dismissed in winter.The cultural and political division between North and South corresponded to the contours of the climate-based growing season. This agricultural system changed little until after 1800, when the growing urban populations motivated farmers to develop new and more profitable crops. Farmers benefited from expanding markets which enabled them to purchase the goods necessary to achieve middle-class respectability. Although gradually eroded, self-provisioning persisted until after World War II, when it was largely abandoned.