AHC: Re-organise the thirteen colonies with natural borders

As I'm trying to have the new colonies to be broadly of similar populations, I need ones to match New England. I think for that reason I'm going to merge most of North Carolina with Virginia. That also works for cultural reasons, as most of NC was settled from Virginia, and by the second half of the 18th Century the planter class had moved in.

It's just a question of how much goes to Virginia and how much goes to an expanded Carolina to the south. It seems to make sense the entire Sandee system and its tributaries goes to Carolina, but I'm not sure how much further North to do the split. My most recent research suggests the Cape Fear region was more connected to Charleston, so I think I'll go just north of that. On the other hand, it's nice to have a big major river like the Cape Fear as the border.


If you're from the area, I'd welcome any insights.


i am from Durham, NC.
if you want it to be larger try having the entire south stay a royal colony until a "bacon's" rebellion then split it along the fall line then you can have a planters colony on one side and a yeomen on they other. the problem is that there is a huge rift between the tide water culture and the Piedmont. it almost broke NC in two again because plantains had a hard time until there was drudging and canals past the fall line. they had to ship it over land so it was mostly substance farming with the occasional cash crop. the divide got worse with south Carolina being mostly tide water. VA also has a powerful planter so it might be hard to merge especially if it was ever separate.

the problems with the rivers is that they run south east and the ridges go south west. so its hard i think it is best to merge the piedmont with VA so perhaps a topographic map is better.if you must use a river though use the
the cape fear and the Roanoke where they almost touch VA gets the east SC gets the west http://www.deh.enr.state.nc.us/osww_new/new1/NPS_maps.htm
 
Completely geographic borders are also not really that great to be quite frank, as you can end up splitting cultural or economic areas that should be within the same state, especially when using rivers.

I'm not sure. Do you think the Indiana-Kentucky border cuts across economic units more than the Indiana-Illinois one does, for example?

it almost broke NC in two again because plantains had a hard time until there was drudging and canals past the fall line. they had to ship it over land so it was mostly substance farming with the occasional cash crop. the divide got worse with south Carolina being mostly tide water. VA also has a powerful planter so it might be hard to merge especially if it was ever separate.

the problems with the rivers is that they run south east and the ridges go south west. so its hard i think it is best to merge the piedmont with VA so perhaps a topographic map is better.if you must use a river though use the
the cape fear and the Roanoke where they almost touch VA gets the east SC gets the west http://www.deh.enr.state.nc.us/osww_new/new1/NPS_maps.htm

My reading tells me that those upriver from the Albermarle and Pamlico sounds were much more connected to the Virginia economy, as the Sounds were unnavigable, so produce had to be taken overground North to Virginia anyway. Those on the Cape Fear could directly take them on rivers south to sea. That might be a natural split.
 
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