Chapter 3 Section 4



Chapter 3 Section 4

“The Southern Colonies”

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Geography of the Southern Colonies

*1760s – Mason and Dixon hired to settle dispute between boundaries of Delaware and Pennsylvania

*Mason-Dixon Line divided Delaware and Pennsylvania; after American Revolution, it was line between northern states (slavery abolished) and southern states (slavery continued)

*Southern colonies – Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; coastline is flat lowland with swampy areas while west side is hills

*Climate is warm and humid; hot summers – long growing season for tobacco and rice. Crops required many workers in fields = slavery

Virginia Grows

*New settlers from Europe helped fact that disease and difficult living conditions kept death rate high

*By 1670s – more children because fewer were dying at a young age; percentage of women in population increased

Conflicts with Native Americans

*As Virginia’s white population increased, Native Americans decreased (1675 – 2,000 left)

*Farmers took more land to plant tobacco

*Violent confrontations with Native Americans in 1622 and 1644 led to deaths of hundreds of colonists although Native Americans lost both times

Bacon’s Rebellion

*1660s – wealthy VA tobacco planters bought most of good farmland near coast, leaving no land for poorer colonists wanting to start own farms (poor young male colonists forced to work on plantations; angry because no land = no voting)

*Poorer colonists moved inland to find farmland; fought with Native Americans but governor reluctant to get involved because he benefited from fur trade

*Nathaniel Bacon – leader of frontier settlers

*1675 – Bacon organized 1,000 westerners to attack and kill Native Americans – governor against Bacon – Bacon attacked Jamestown and burned it to ground – governor ran away

*Bacon’s Rebellion ended when Bacon became sick and died; governor hanged 23 of Bacon’s followers but he could not stop English settlers from moving onto Native American lands

Religious Toleration in Maryland

*1632 – King Charles II granted charter for George Calvert, an English Catholic (Catholics suffered discrimination in England), to set up a colony where Catholics could live safely (Maryland)

*First settlers in Maryland were Catholics and Protestants; grew tobacco and fished in Chesapeake Bay

*When Calvert died, his son, Lord Baltimore, became proprietor (owner of a business or colony)

*As required by charter, there was a representative assembly

*Fearing Catholics might lose their rights, Lord Baltimore got assembly to pass Act of Toleration in 1649. It welcomed all Christians and gave adult male Christians right to vote and hold office.

Colonies in the Carolinas and Georgia

*1663 – King Charles II granted charter for new colony to be established south of Virginia, in area called Carolina

*Northern part of Carolina developed slowly; lacked harbors and rivers for ships to travel; settlers lived on small farms (tobacco) and some produced lumber for shipbuilding

*Southern part of Carolina grew more quickly; sugar grew in swampy lowlands (many settlers from Barbados in West Indies and brought enslaved people to grow sugar); soon colonists used slave labor to grow rice which became area’s most important crop

*Charles Town (now Charleston) became biggest city in Southern Colonies

*Carolina became North Carolina and South Carolina

Georgia

*Georgia founded because English were afraid that Spain was about to expand its Florida colony northward and because wealthy businessmen, led by James Oglethorpe, wanted a colony where there would be protection from English debtors (people who owe money). English laws stated the government could imprison debtors until they paid what they owed.

*Georgia’s founders wanted Georgia to be a colony of small farms, not large plantations, so slavery was banned

*Restriction against slavery was unpopular with settlers; by 1750s, slavery was legal in Georgia

Change in the Southern Colonies

*People along coast lived very differently from people who settled inland on the frontier

The Tidewater Region

*Flat lowland along coastline that included swampy areas

*Plantations – large farms especially in a hot country where crops such as cotton, sugar, and rice are grown

*Economy in Tidewater region dominated by plantations (began in VA and MD when settlers grew tobacco)

*Tidewater in SC and GA grew rice (required many workers laboring in hot, humid, unhealthy conditions); promoted spread of slavery – soon enslaved population outnumbered free population in SC

*Plantation system created society of slaveholders and enslaved people and divided white community into small group of wealthy people and larger group with little or no land (most poor and lived in backcountry South)

Backcountry

*Backcountry cut off from coast by poor roads and long distances

*Families lived on isolated farms and often did not legally own the land they farmed; few had servants or enslaved people to help with work; women and girls worked alongside males

*Backcountry people believed colonial governments did not care about them

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