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Article: Tidewater
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
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TIDEWATER
TIDEWATER
is a term commonly used to designate that portion of the Atlantic coastal plain lying east of the points in rivers reached by oceanic tides. This region, the first to be occupied by settlers from the Old World, slowly became an area of comparative wealth. Merchants and shippers in the towns; and planters growing tobacco, rice, indigo, and cotton, dominated the tidewater population. Since the tidewater coastal area is so narrow in New England, the terminology is more applicable elsewhere, particularly to the middle and southern Atlantic regions that were initially British colonies and the later states of the federal Union. First to settle and establish themselves ...