Excerpt from William Berkeley’s Discourse and View of Virginia, 1663
Now for those things which are naturally in it, they are these, Iron, Lead, Pitch, Tar, Masts, Timber for Ships of the greatest magnitude, and Wood for Pot-ashes. Those other Commodities, which are produced by industry, are Flax, Hemp, Silk, Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rice, Cotton, all sorts of Pulse and Fruits, the last of which in that perfection, that if the taste were the onely judge, we would not think they were of the same species with those from which they are derived to us from England. The vicious ruinous plant of Tobacco I would not name, but that it brings more money to the Crown, then all the Islands in America besides. . . . For though the first ships arrived in Virginia in 1606. yet by reason of many almost insuparable difficulties, the increase of the number of Planters was hardly perceptible: For, first, that, as all unclear’d Plantations, was unwholsom; then all they eat came from England, and provided for those they never saw nor cared for, was not likely to be very good. Then the Indians quickly grew jealous of them, and forced them to fight for every foot of ground they held, and in the year 1622. in one night murdered all but four or five hundred. So that from that time we must begin the account of the Plantation: nor is this all, for many years after this, the danger and scarcity of the Inhabitants was of famed through England, that none but such as were forced could be induced to plant or defend the place; and of those that came, there was not one woman to thirty men, and populus virorum is of no long duration any where. But since the year 1630. the place began to be of more plenty and security, for the Indians, though not subdued, were terrified to a suspension of arms, the Planters then first began to fence their grounds and plant Corn; the few Cattel they had, increased to such numbers, that they were able to help their neighbour Plantations. And now I believe, that there is no Plantation of the English would more abound in Cattel, Hogs, and all sorts of Fruit, than Virginia, if they had but a mean price to quicken their industry, and make their providence vigilant.
Excerpt from Edward Randolph’s Report of King Philip’s War in New England, 1675
Various are the reports and conjectures of the causes of the present Indian warre [sic]. Some impute it to an imprudent zeal in the magistrates of Boston to christianize those heathen before they were civilized and enjoining them the strict observation of their laws. . . . [T]he people, on the other side, for lucre and gain, entice and provoke the Indians to the breach thereof, especially to drunkenness, to which those people are so generally addicted that they will strip themselves to their skin to have their fill of rum and brandy. . . . Some believe there have been vagrant and jesuitical priests, who have made it their business, for some years past, to go from Sachem to Sachem, to exasperate the Indians against the English and to bring them into a confederacy, and that they were promised supplies from France and other parts to extirpate the English nation out of the continent of America. . . . But the government of the Massachusetts . . . [has] contributed much to their misfortunes, for they first taught the Indians the use of arms, and admitted them to be present at all their musters and trainings, and shewed [sic] them how to handle, mend and fix their muskets, and have been furnished with all sorts of arms by permission of the government.
Excerpt from Edward Randolph’s Report of King Philip’s War in New England, 1675
Various are the reports and conjectures of the causes of the present Indian warre [sic]. Some impute it to an imprudent zeal in the magistrates of Boston to christianize those heathen before they were civilized and enjoining them the strict observation of their laws. . . . [T]he people, on the other side, for lucre and gain, entice and provoke the Indians to the breach thereof, especially to drunkenness, to which those people are so generally addicted that they will strip themselves to their skin to have their fill of rum and brandy. . . . Some believe there have been vagrant and jesuitical priests, who have made it their business, for some years past, to go from Sachem to Sachem, to exasperate the Indians against the English and to bring them into a confederacy, and that they were promised supplies from France and other parts to extirpate the English nation out of the continent of America. . . . But the government of the Massachusetts . . . [has] contributed much to their misfortunes, for they first taught the Indians the use of arms, and admitted them to be present at all their musters and trainings, and shewed [sic] them how to handle, mend and fix their muskets, and have been furnished with all sorts of arms by permission of the government.
Use the excerpts from Berkeley and Randolph to answer the question.
Which inference about the Virginia and New England colonies do the accounts BEST support?
A.
Native Americans in both regions reluctantly sold their lands to colonists.
B.
Joint-stock companies used superior technology to seize control of both areas.
C.
Early colonists in both regions traded weapons and alcohol for raw materials.
D.
Both colonies became interdependent with local Native American nations.