FRtR > Essays > Anglo-American colonization in Texas > Conclusion

Anglo-American colonization in Texas


11/12 Conclusion


By Kjetil Ersdal

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The cultural-economic origins of the various regions of Texas were quite different. As the southern economy was dominated by agriculture, the major difference between the Lower and Upper South pertained to farming. The south was economically dominated by the plantation type of agriculture. The economic systems can also be differentiated by the higher proportion of slaves in lower southern areas. Cotton had in this connection an emphasis as the dominant cash crop. In contrast, the Upper south was primarily the domain of slaveless yeomen farmers, an area largely without cotton and other subtropical cash crops. The economy was characterized by wheat as a major cash crop, and a food surplus in corn and small grains for trade. In other words, the Upper south also left a distinctive mark on the land they settled. Being the first settlers of Texas they were later forced to seek land in the Blackland prairie.
Texas was no longer within the domain of the Blackland prairie: the census shows a growing lower southern population. And after the Civil war, as transportion improved, and new markets advanced the south developed in many ways a characteristic social organization and a characteristic southern culture.

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