Southern Colonies

Standard(s):

8.7 Explain the reasons behind the settlement of the Georgia Colony, including the role of James Oglethorpe and Georgia as a “debtor” colony and a “buffer” colony. (C, E, G, H)

8.10 Locate and identify the first 13 colonies, and describe how their location and geographic features influenced their development. (E, G, H, P)

8.14 Identify the origins and development of slavery in the colonies, overt and passive resistance to enslavement, and the Middle Passage. (C, E, G, H, P)

Learning Objectives:

Describe the geography and climate of the Southern Colonies.
Describe the early history of Virginia.
Explain how Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia were founded.
Identify the factors that produced the Tidewater and backcountry ways of life.

Vocabulary:

Nathaniel Bacon – the leader of the frontier settlers who fought “Bacon’s Rebellion,” an attack against Native Americans who were trying to defend their land from colonists
Lord Baltimore – the Catholic proprietor of the Maryland colony who convinced its assembly to pass the Act of Toleration
James Oglethorpe – a wealthy Englishman who founded the colony of Georgia, where English debtors would be protected
debtor – a person who owes money
plantation – a large farm

Essential Question: What factors influenced the development of the Southern Colonies?

Geography of the Southern Colonies

Location	These colonies were located south of the Mason-Dixon line, a boundary drawn between Pennsylvania and Maryland. After the American Revolution, the Mason-Dixon line was the dividing line between anti-slavery northern states and pro-slavery southern states.
Landforms	The Southern Colonies shared a coastal area called the Tidewater, a flat lowland that includes many swampy areas. On its west, the Tidewater blends into a region of rolling hills called the Piedmont. Then and now, the climate of these southern states has been warm and humid. The region’s long growing season is ideal for crops such as tobacco and rice.

Virginia

Virginia’s population grew gradually, but by 1670, 40,000 people lived there.
By the 1670s, there were more women in Virginia, and more children as well, because fewer were dying at a young age.
By the 1670s, there were more women in Virginia, and more children as well, because fewer were dying at a young age.
Conflict with Native Americans

In 1607, there had been 8,000 Native Americans in Virginia, but disease and violence took their toll.
By 1675, only 2,000 Native Americans were left.
In 1622 and 1644, violence broke out between farmers who wanted more space to plant tobacco and Native Americans trying to defend their land.

Bacon’s Rebellion
Land & Voting Rights	Poor, young, white men could not get farmland near the coast because wealthy Virginia tobacco planters bought it all. Without property, men could not vote. Many poor colonists moved inland to find good farmland, but they had to fight Native Americans for it.
Politics	Poor colonists asked the governor to force the Native Americans to give up their land. The governor did not want to disrupt the fur trade with Native Americans.
Events	In 1675, Nathaniel Bacon organized 1,000 settlers to kill Native Americans for their land. Virginia’s governor declared the settlers rebels; in retaliation, Bacon burned Jamestown. Bacon’s Rebellion collapsed when Bacon died, but the governor still could not stop settlers from moving onto Native American lands.

Maryland

In 1632, King Charles I granted a charter for a new colony to George Calvert, an English Catholic.
Calvert set up the colony of Maryland, where Catholics could live free of the persecution they suffered in England.
The first settlers included both Catholics and Protestants.
When Calvert died, his son Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, became proprietor of the colony.
Soon there was tension between Protestants and Catholics, and Lord Baltimore feared Catholics might lose their rights.
In 1649, he convinced Maryland’s assembly to pass the Act of Toleration, which welcomed all Christians and gave adult male Christians the right to vote and hold office.

The Carolinas

Beginnings	In 1663, King Charles II granted a charter for a new colony called Carolina to be established south of Virginia.
Northern Carolina	The northern part of Carolina developed slowly because it had no harbors or rivers. Settlers grew tobacco on small farms.
Southern Carolina	Sugar grew well in the southern part of Carolina, which expanded quickly. Planters came from Barbados in the West Indies, bringing slaves to grow sugar and rice, which became the area’s most important crop.

As rice production spread, Carolina’s main city, Charles Town (today’s Charleston) became the biggest city in the Southern Colonies.
By then, Carolina had become two colonies: North Carolina and South Carolina.

Georgia

Georgia, the last of England’s 13 colonies, was founded for two reasons:

An English colony south of Carolina would confine the Spanish to their Florida colony.
A group of wealthy Englishmen led by James Oglethorpe wanted a colony where there would be protection for English debtors.

Georgia’s founders wanted Georgia to be a colony of small farms, not large plantations, and so slavery was banned.
But this restriction was unpopular with settlers and did not last.
By the 1750s, slavery was legal in Georgia.

2 Southern Ways of Life

During the 1700s, the Southern Colonies developed two distinct ways of life.

Backcountry Life

Plantation Life

The backcountry was cut off from the coast, and many poor families lived in one-room shacks on isolated farms.
The backcountry was cut off from the coast by poor roads and long distances.
Families lived in shacks on isolated farms, often on land not legally their own.
Backcountry people believed colonial governments on the coast cared only about the interests of plantation owners, not about them.

Along the coast, in the Tidewater region, the economy was dominated by wealthy plantations.
The plantation system began in Virginia and Maryland when settlers began growing tobacco.
The Tidewater region in South Carolina and Georgia was well suited for rice.
However, growing rice required many workers to labor in tough conditions. As a result, rice-farming helped promote the spread of slavery.
In time, the enslaved population outnumbered the free population of South Carolina.
The plantation system also divided the white community into: