In early America, socioeconomic class, agriculture, religion, and gender played four very important roles in the regional distinctions of this developing country . Although agriculture, religion, and gender were extremely important, the most important factor was socioeconomic life. A person's socioeconomic class was what determined their lifestyle by wealth, treatment, clothing style, and home, which are important aspects of human life. In Everyday Life in Early America, David Freeman Hawke explains how each of these four factors determined the lifestyle of each of America's earliest residents, as well as the country's overall development in its early years to emerge into a growing and improving nation ( continues ) Agriculture had an enormous value for the life of the first Americans and for the development of the country. It was one of the two most important aspects of American life, but it was not as primary as social and economic life. Some of the major crops grown by early settlers included wheat, peas, corn, and tobacco. Farms were developed first in the Chesapeake region. Because of the abundance of land and numerous waterways in this region, the homestead soil was richer and more ideal for farming. Farms in the northern colonies, particularly in New England, tended to be smaller due to fewer fields and land. The southern colonies were able to have much larger plantations and areas for planting crops. White indentured servants were sometimes hired in the early part of the 17th century, but black slaves became a common use of labor in the last decades of the 1600s. New England, and the middle colonies in opposition, rarely hired slaves. The most abundant and common crop in each region was corn. “Every…Half of the Paper…Exposes Slavery,” in Kennedy, David M. and Thomas A. Bailey. The American spirit: the history of the United States as seen by contemporaries. vol. I: To 1877. Eleventh edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. “The Conscience of a Slave Trader,” in Kennedy, David M., and Thomas A. Bailey. The American spirit: the history of the United States as seen by contemporaries. vol. I: To 1877. Eleventh edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. “The 'Blessings' of a Slave,” in Kennedy, David M., and Thomas A. Bailey. The American spirit: the history of the United States as seen by contemporaries. vol. I: To 1877. Eleventh edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. “The Stono River Rebellion in South Carolina,” in Kennedy, David M., and Thomas A. Bailey. The American spirit: the history of the United States as seen by contemporaries. vol. I: To 1877. Eleventh edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006