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 economically, socially, and politically, tidewater region inhabitants secured control of the government. Almost inevitably, they used the machinery of government for their own benefit and in accordance with their own traditions and ideals, and they resisted any efforts to weaken their control. Nonetheless, the later population—composed largely of small farmers who moved out into the Piedmont region—found this governmental domination both unfair and injurious. A serious and long-standing sectional conflict resulted. Sometimes, as in the case of Bacon's Rebellion of 1676 in Virginia, the Paxton riots of 1764 in Pennsylvania, and the Regulator movement of 1768–1771 in North Carolina, the conflict resulted in open warfare. At times, manipulation and compromise kept violence down. Less violence accompanied the separation of West Virginia from the rest of Virginia in 1863 when the western counties, which had remained loyal to the Union, formed their own state. On all occasions, however, the serious conflict in ideals and interest had to be taken into consideration. The political history of the colonies, and later the states, can only be interpreted adequately in the light of this conflict.

The tidewater element of the population maintained control of the government largely by a device of disproportional representation that operated widely from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Another device was restricted suffrage, wherein a heavy property qualification benefited the wealthy of the tidewater region while it disadvantaged the poorer inhabitants of the interior. Using these devices to control the legislatures, the tidewater element pursued policies in regard to the Indians, debts, and taxes that were of most benefit to the tidewater population and therefore often injurious to the up-country population.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kars, Marjoleine. Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

Kolp, John Gilman. Gentlemen and Freeholders: Electoral Politics in Colonial Virginia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Lee, Wayne E. Crowds and Soldiers in Revolutionary North Carolina: The Culture of Violence in Riot and War. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001.

Williams, John Alexander. West Virginia: A History. Morgan-town: West Virginia University Press, 2001.

Alfred P.James/a. e.

See alsoFall Line ; Indigo Culture ; Insurrections, Domestic ; Paxton Boys ; Regulators ; Rice Culture and Trade ; Tobacco Industry ; Sectionalism .

tidewater in U.S. history, that part of the Atlantic coastal plain between the shoreline and the farthest upstream points in rivers reached by oceanic tides. In many cases the fall line is given as the western boundary. The tidewater, with its good harbors readily accessible to the ocean, was settled first by European colonists. Later the Southern tidewater became one of the many regions of large plantations as well as an area of important commercial towns.

tide·wa·ter • n. water brought or affected by tides. ∎  an area that is affected by tides: [as adj.] a large area of tidewater country.

tidewater n.
1. water brought or affected by tides.

2. an area that is affected by tides: a large area of tidewater country.

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