Wanderlust World Wanderlust World You arrived from England chasing gold but found the land offered other livelihoods. Your occupation would depend entirely on where you landed and what the local economy demanded. Here are the most probable paths for a 17th–18th century English settler who pivoted from mining:
If you settled in Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, or Pennsylvania, arable land was the primary asset. You'd grow:
You'd start as an indentured servant or tenant, work toward owning 50–100 acres, maybe a few enslaved workers or hired hands.
In Pennsylvania (iron, coal), New Jersey (iron), or later Colorado/California (silver, lead, copper). You'd work for a company or stake a claim. Hard, dangerous, often corporate-controlled.
Coastal New England (Massachusetts, Maine, Newfoundland). Cod was "British gold"—salted, dried, shipped to Europe/Caribbean. Whaling (Nantucket, New Bedford) offered high risk/high reward. Seasonal, communal, skill-intensive.
New England and Mid-Atlantic forests supplied masts, timber, naval stores (tar, pitch, turpentine) to the Royal Navy and merchant marine. You'd fell trees, run a sawmill, or build hulls. Capital-intensive but steady demand.
Leverage your English connections. Import manufactured goods (tools, cloth, rum), export raw materials. Operate a store, factor house, or coastal sloop. Requires literacy, capital, trust networks. High social mobility potential.
Blacksmith, cooper, carpenter, weaver, cordwainer (shoemaker). Every settlement needed them. Apprenticeship → journeyman → master. Stable, respected, essential.
| Region | Dominant Economy | Likely Job |
|---|---|---|
| New England | Fishing, timber, trade, shipbuilding | Fisherman, carpenter, merchant |
| Middle Colonies | Grain, iron, diverse farming | Farmer, miller, ironworker |
| Chesapeake | Tobacco plantation | Planter, overseer, artisan |
| Lower South | Rice, indigo, later cotton | Planter, factor, skilled enslaved artisan |
| Frontier | Fur trade, land speculation | Trader, surveyor, hunter |
Your "way of life more suited" was almost certainly agriculture or a trade serving it. Gold was the exception; land and labor were the rule.