I’m writing my APUSH essays and the Enclosure Acts are in the topic of "The Impact of the cultivation of Tobacco in Virginia on English Colonies during the 1600s and 1700s." But I didn’t think that the Enclosure Acts had anything to do with the colonies. So, I’m very confused. Please help me. Thanks.
Julia,
The Enclosure Acts drove many tenant farmers in England and Wales from those regions. The Acts basically facilitated removal of those farmers from their "holdings" as small farms were called, and left them poor and without a means of support in the English cities. Their small holdings, sometimes no larger than an acre, were fenced or walled in and made into grazing lands. These pasture lands required no tending except the occasional shepherd.
The demand for wool was increasing and the farmers were out of work and luck. The property owners didn’t care and the government could see no solution, save throwing them in debtor’s prison.
When moving them to the colonies was given as choice between prison and poverty, most moved to those colonies, usually to become laborers on tobacco farms or in the Carolinas as woodsmen. Ship’s stores were a big business as well, with wood and pitch being principal among those products.
Most of the farmers came to the colonies as "indentured servants." They had to repay their passage from England by working for seven or more years until they had worked off that expense. The colony of Virginia then promised them 40 acres (or thereabouts) and so many pieces of silver or gold. The land was conveyed by grant to be theirs from henceforth, meaning that the governments could not take it away as long as the taxes were paid.
Needless to say, the colonial expansion, begun in earnest in the early 1600’s exploded as the farmers joined the rush to settle the Americas, specifically, the Southern colonies.
Hope this helps. Email if you need more explanation.
A couple of sites perhaps would help as well:
http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Enclosure+movement
General but good information in farlex
http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01419/agriculturalrevolutiontext.html
A little more detail in thinkquest. Also good info.
And, of course, Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure