southern colonies

• By 1660, while tobacco prices fell, large plantations continued to prosper because they were better able to maintain high profits than were small farms
• Along with the growth of plantations, there was an increasing need for workers in the newly settled Southern Colonies
• Products of the Southern Colonies

  • Rice
  • Indigo
  • Cattle
  • Grain
  • Tobacco
  • Fish
  • Lumber
  • Iron
  • Rum
• English criminals and Scottish and Irish prisoners of war were also shipped to the colonies. They could earn their release by working for a period of time—often seven years
• African rulers took prisoners during wars and raids. They enslaved the captives and sold them to European slave traders who took them to the colonies
• Many people came to the colonies as indentured servants. To pay for their passage to America, they agreed to work without pay for a certain period of time
• Maryland


  A proprietary colony north of Virginia, granted to Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, in 1632
• Calvert's son Cecilius Calvert, the new Lord Baltimore, never lived in Maryland. Instead, he sent two of his brothers to run the colony
• The Maryland colonists turned first to tobacco farming, but a Maryland law declared that "every person planting tobacco shall plant and tend two acres of corn"
• Lord Baltimore promised land—100 acres to each male settler, another 100 for his wife, 100 for each servant, and 50 for each of his children—to bring settlers to the colony
• The Calvert family and the Penn family argued over the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania. In the 1760s they hired Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to map the line dividing the colonies
• Baltimore passed a law called the Act of Toleration in 1649, which granted Protestants and Catholics the right to worship freely, but tensions continued between the two groups
• In 1692, with the support of the English government, the Protestant-controlled assembly made the Anglican Church the official church in Maryland, and imposed the same restrictions on Catholics that existed in England
• Wealthy tobacco planters held the best land near the coast in Virginia, so new settlers pushed inland, leading to conflicts with Native Americans
• In 1676 Nathaniel Bacon led angry westerners in attacks on Native American villages. Bacon's army marched to Jamestown, set fire to the capital, and drove Governor Berkeley into exile
• King Charles II created a large proprietary colony south of Virginia in 1663, called Carolina, and gave it to a group of eight prominent members of his court
• John Locke, an English political philosopher, wrote a constitution for the Carolina colony, covering subjects like land distribution and social ranking
• The northern part of Carolina was settled mostly by farmers from Virginia's backcountry, who grew tobacco and sold forest products, while the southern part was more prosperous, with rice and indigo as leading crops
• Most of the settlers in southern Carolina came from the island of Barbados in the West Indies, where they used enslaved Africans to produce sugar, and they brought these workers with them
• By 1708 more than half the people living in southern Carolina were enslaved Africans
• In 1719 the settlers in southern Carolina seized control from its proprietors, and in 1729 Carolina became two royal colonies—North and South Carolina
• Georgia, the last of the British colonies in America to be established, was founded in 1733 by a group led by General James Oglethorpe
• Barbados


  • Colonists used enslaved Africans to produce sugar
  • Colonists brought these workers with them
• Carolinas


  • Many enslaved Africans worked in the rice fields
  • Some had knowledge of rice cultivation from West Africa
  • Growing rice required much labor, so the demand for slaves increased
  • By 1708 more than half the people living in southern Carolina were enslaved Africans
• Carolina settlers seizing control from proprietors


  1. 1719 settlers in southern Carolina seized control

  2. 1729 Carolina became two royal colonies - North and South Carolina
• John Locke - what did he do for Carolina?
• Georgia


  • Founded in 1733
  • Group led by General James Oglethorpe received a charter to create a colony for English debtors and poor people
  • Could protect other British colonies from Spanish attack
• Oglethorpe's Town


  • Oglethorpe led the first group of "sober, industrial, and moral persons" to Georgia in 1733
  • They built Savannah and forts to defend against Spanish
  • Oglethorpe wanted hardworking, independent, Protestant people
  • He kept farm sizes small and banned slavery, Catholics, and rum
• Rice cultivation


  Increased the demand for enslaved labor
• Founding of the thirteen colonies


  • New England Colonies: Plymouth 1620, Massachusetts Bay 1630, New Hampshire c.1620, Rhode Island 1636, Connecticut 1635
  • Middle Colonies: New York 1624, Delaware 1638, New Jersey 1638, Pennsylvania 1682
  • Southern Colonies: Virginia 1607, Maryland 1634, North Carolina c.1660s, South Carolina 1670, Georgia 1733
• Although Georgia had been planned as a debtors' colony, it actually received few debtors
• Georgia colony changes


  • Many settlers complained about limits on landholdings and bans on slavery and rum
  • Oglethorpe grew frustrated and in 1751 gave the colony back to the king
• By 1751 British settlers had been in what is now the eastern United States for almost a century and a half, lining the Atlantic coast with colonies
• The British were not the only Europeans colonizing North America - the Spanish and French also had settlements
• New France


  • French founded Quebec in 1608
  • Mainly concerned with fishing and fur trapping
  • French fur companies built forts and trading posts
  • In 1663 New France became a royal colony under King Louis XIV
• Exploration of the Mississippi River


  1. 1670s - Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette explored the Mississippi by canoe

  2. 1680s - Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle followed the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the region for France, naming it Louisiana
• Growth of New France

  • Settlement advanced slowly along the St. Lawrence River
  • Settlers were tenant farmers who paid rent and worked for the landowners
  • French had better relations with Native Americans than other Europeans
• New Spain


  • Spanish controlled Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central/South America
  • Sent soldiers, missionaries, and settlers north to present-day New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas to protect their claims
• Spanish missions in California

  1. Junípero Serra founded a mission at San Diego in 1769

  2. Over 15 years, Serra set up 8 more missions along El Camino Real

  3. Missions converted Native Americans and used them as forced laborers
• Britain and France fought several wars in the 1700s, with fighting breaking out between their colonial settlements in America