Work in the middle colonies slowly became more and more “get and spend” throughout the eighteenth century. The economy slowly grew and eventually it was flooded with rich willing to spend their money, and those willing to supply them with what they wanted. The economic scene soon grew full of middlemen ready to “fill the needs – real or perceived – of a burgeoning consumer society.”13 Many “merchants” opened shop and began to sell goods that people needed and wanted. Although these merchants were not concentrated into the same towns, they were spread out and that opened the option for the spread of one’s business and name. Many merchants began to start franchise type establishments from town to town that would eventually lead them to economic prosperity.

The communities of the middle colonies were similar to the northern communities, as well as the southern communities. The Middle region’s combination of establishments, yet spread out and far from one another, and its use of larger farms for personal profit stands as a middle ground in comparison of the northern and southern regions. An example of such would be, “The middle colonies could, in fact, boast a fair number of good-sized, prosperous towns, but they lacked the hundreds of rural villages that in New England were dignified by the title of ‘town.’”12 The middle colonies, as the quote points out, had some flourishing villages, while still maintaining the spread that was so desired by southern colonials. The middle colonies act very well as a central compromise of the North and the South. If the North and the South had been able to reach a compromise in the early eighteenth century, a community much like the Middle region would be the most likely outcome.

Many middle colony farmers preferred hired labor to slave labor because they felt that they would receive higher quality work if they paid for it, rather than forcing someone to do work that they did not want to do. The hired workers however, did not live with the farmers, because the trend of the Middle region was to engage in a nuclear family, that being only the close kin living with one another in a single home. The combination of the nuclear family and the idea that free wage labor would have a greater contribution to one’s business led many of the farmers of the Middle region to prosper throughout the eighteenth century.

iddle region, and the South. The inhabitants of these three regions experienced a variety of different types of family, work, and relationships within the community.

Some topics in this essay:
North South, America Towns, Overall Amerindians, South Slaves, United America, North Amerindians, Contrary South, North Middle, Littleale Littleale, Colonial America, eighteenth century, colonial america, middle colonies, indentured servants, middle region, plantation owners, southern region, white indentured servants, white servants, northern region, white indentured, region colonial america, throughout eighteenth century, free wage labor, white servants middle,