I. The New England Timber Economy

A. Forest ecology of New England. Three forest types existed at the time of colinization of present -day New England

1. Spruce-fir-northern hardwoods in northeastern Maine, Vermont, northern New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts, including spruce, balsam, juniper, aspen, beech, birch, and maple.

2. Hemlock-white pine-hardwood in Maine, southern New Hampshire, Massachusetts, including hemlock, white pine, red oak, white oak, maple, ash, and birch.

3. Oak-chestnut in Connecticut and Rhode Island, including red oak, scarlet oak, chestnut, hickory, maple, birch, and beech.

Indians clear forest for horticulture, hunti deer and other animals in upland forests, and burn forests for ease of passage and to create browse for deer.

B. Exogenous factors disrupting New England forest ecology

1. Population: Population pressures on land and timber in late sixteenth century England (high person-to-land ratios) help to induce migration to the New World (low person-to-land ratios). Rationales are to repopulate America after Indian depopulation (caused by diseases), engage in trade, and flee religious persecution.

2. Rise of market: Timber trade develops in 1640s and '50s with the Canary Islands, Azores, West Indies, Newfoundland, and England. Red oak is used for barrel staves, sugar, and molasses; white oak for white wine casks; white pine for masts and boards; cedar for shingles; ash and oak for plows, harrows, shovels, pitchforks; sumac, hemlock, oak, butternut, dogwood for dyes; maple for sugar; hemlock and cherry for astringents and cough syrup; sasafras for medicines.

3. Technology: Broad-axes; sawmills operated by water power.

4. Social Relations: Power of timber merchant (and other New England merchants) rises. Merchants extend credit to farmers and lumberers creating debtor class. Class of free-hold farmers is also created by low person-to-land ratio. Resources are exploited and Indian lands are appropriated. New England towns pass laws limiting timber cutting to preserve trees for firewood (Plymouth, 1626; Ipswich, 1635; Southold, Long Island, 1654; Dorchester, 1658). Laws limits the use of fire and grazing. Common woods (for example, Ipswich, 1744) are established. Broad Arrow policy of English crown, enacted piecemeal between 1691 and 1729, preserves white pines greater than 24 inches in diameter at 12 inches above ground for masts.

5. Attitudes: Wilderness is subjugated in accordance with Judeo-Christian biblical framework: Exile in wilderness by God's chosen people (Israelites and Puritans) symbolizes overcoming evil and of the anti-Christ. Hardships and trials will be surmounted; Indians converted to Christianity; wilderness subdued. Antithesis exists between wilderness and civilization. Puritan ethic emphasizes hard work, ascetic life, and accumulation of wealth with an eye towards salvation. Puritans strive to create and live within kingdom of God on earth, to refrain from sin, and to achieve salvation.

1. How do William Bradford, John Winthrop, and Thomas Morton use Biblical images and ideas to interpret the New World? What environmental role might such imagery have played?

2. What similarities and differences can you find between William Bradford's and Thomas Morton's descriptions of the New England environment and how do you account for them?

3. How according to William Wood and Roger Williams do Indian men and women produce subsistence? Were the two sexes equal in their contributions? How do their roles in subsistence production compare to those of the Pueblo and Micmac?

4. What social and ecological consequences might the diseases that struck the Indians (as described by William Bradford) have had? How might Merchant's concept of biological and social reproduction help to explain these consequences?

5. Compare and contrast Indian, colonists', and the English King's use, management, and conservation of the New England forest. What ecological changes might have resulted from each approach?

6. How does the history of New England told from the standpoint of the beaver differ from the same history told from the standpoint of the colonial settler? What different assumptions underlie the two histories? What are some consequences of writing environmental histories from the perspectives of nonhuman components of the ecosystem--such as a white pine tree, a rock, a river, or another animal?

7. How did the ecology of New England change between 1600 and 1700? What concepts (such as those introduced in chapter 1) do you find most useful for explaining the transformation? Which of these concepts are key to your own historical explanation?