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can someone explain the growing preoccupation with consumption of material goods in the British colonies and how this preoccupation was associated with social status?
and also how did the plantation system in the American South illustrate both differences between the colonial English class systems and the way in which colonial communities evolved in response to local conditions?
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This answer is late I know, and not a very good one (or very researched - sorry a bit busy atm), but here goes -
The first part, I'm guessing that the rich are able to consume the most considering they can afford it. Really, has a lot changed? But the preoccupation with it, I'm not entirely sure about it. A guess (educated guess, shot in the dark kinda deal) would be growing prices and taxes forced people to do with less material goods, especially as the English gained more control over the trade and could force the prices of everything up. Anyhow, something like that is probably where you'll want to look for information.
The southern plantation system...it's been a while but the differences made a huge impact. The middle and southern colonies were more agricultural based societies than the upper New England ones. The most notable difference therefore was the ratio of slaves to owners. Where a New England owner would have maybe 20 slaves to run their house in the city, a Southern owner would need a lot more to do all the work on the acres of farm land (without sophisticated tools) as well as the house work. As a result different methods needed to be implemented to keep the slaves in line. Revolts were less of a threat in the northern colonies, and therefore keeping slaves in line was much less strict than it was in the south where owners often pitted all their slaves against each other to keep them from rising up and overwhelming them. Since the basis for social status was very different, the resulting societies - each in a way a magnification of the start - were also very different.
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Pianogirl pretty much hit the nail on the head. :)