Title: Southern English Colonies Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
1Southern English ColoniesMaryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
2Rural Farmers
- In contrast to the New England and Middle
Colonies the Southern Colonies (Virginia,
Maryland, North and South Carolina, and Georgia)
were primarily rural and agrarian.
3Virginia and Maryland
- Virginia was Englands first colony in America
and tobacco made it a profitable one. - Maryland, settled in 1632 by Sir George Calvert
and his son, Cecil (Lord Baltimore) as a refuge
for Catholics who were treated unfairly in
England. - Maryland was named after Henrietta Maria, the
Kings Spanish wife and Catholic.
4Religious tolerance in Maryland
- Eight years after the establishment of the
Maryland colony the Catholics that the colony had
been formed to protect formed less than 25
percent of the inhabitants. In 1649 the
proprietor feared that Catholics and other
religions could lose their religious freedom. - The assembly passed the famous Toleration Act,
providing that "no person in this province
professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall be in
any ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced
for his or her religion...so that they be not
unfaithful to the lord proprietary or molest or
conspire against the civil government
established. - This is the first law guaranteeing religious
toleration in the American colonies,
5- By the late 1600s, Virginia and Maryland's
economic and social structure rested on the great
planters and the yeoman (small) farmers. The
rich planters of the tidewater region, using
slave labor, held most of the best land and
political power. - They built great houses, adopted an aristocratic
(royal) way of life and kept in touch as best
they could with the world of culture in Europe.
6Crops and laborers
- The Southern colonies offered a warm and humid
climate that was excellent for growing crops. - Tobacco was one of the most successful crops in
the southern colonies, especially Virginia, and
rice, corn, indigo and wheat were other
successful crops.
7- At first, indentured servants were used to help
on the large plantations. Eventually more workers
were needed and slavery became common in the
southern colonies.
To limit the rights of slaves and to protect the
colonists property (slaves) the colonists passed
SLAVE CODES which governed the behavior of
enslaved Africans. These laws were based in the
belief that slaves were inferior to the colonists
because of their skin color and African origin.
This is called racism.
8Bacons Rebellion
- High taxes, low prices for tobacco, and
resentment against special privileges given to
friends of the governor, Sir William Berkeley ,
caused a popular revolt led by Nathaniel Bacon in
colonial Virginia in 1676. - Berkeley's failure to defend the frontier farmers
against attacks by Native Americans caused Bacon
to make 2 illegal attacks against the local
tribes. Bacon was then elected to the new House
of Burgesses which Berkeley had been forced to
convene.
Nathaniel Bacon
9- When Berkeley had Bacon arrested his supporters
forced his release. Bacon then gathered his
supporters, marched on Jamestown, and forced
Berkeley into giving him permission to continue
his attacks against Native Americans. - The governor, having failed to raise troops
against Bacon, fled to the Eastern Shore. He
gathered enough soldiers to return to Jamestown,
where he declared Bacon and his men rebels and
traitors. - Bacon recaptured the capital (Berkeley again ran
away) but, fearing that he could not hold it
against attack, burned the town. Bacon now
controlled the colony, but he died suddenly
(Oct., 1676), and without his leadership the
rebellion collapsed.
Sir William Berkeley
10- Charleston, South Carolina, became the leading
port and trading center of the South. - The settlers quickly learned to profit from cash
crops and the busy port became a major source of
prosperity. - The dense longleaf pine forests also brought
profit from lumber, tar and resin from the
provided some of the best shipbuilding materials
in the world.
11The Carolinas
- The Carolinas, names after King Charles II in
1663 differed from north to south. - The North was settled mostly by poor tobacco
farmers from Virginia. - The South was governed by the Eight Lords
Proprietor who received their land from the King
to repay a debt.. - Many early settlers were English planters from
Barbados in the Caribbean. - They set up Charles Town which became Charleston
as a major sea port for exporting their crops to
Europe.
12North and South Carolina
- North and South Carolina produced and exported
rice and indigo, a blue dye obtained from native
plants, which was used in coloring fabric. By
1750 more than 100,000 people lived in the two
colonies of North and South Carolina.
13Georgia
- Georgia, the last of the 13 English colonies was
established as a safe place for English debtors
to start new lives. - James Ogelthorpe, a respected English soldier and
reformer believed that with strict rules any poor
debtor who worked hard could be prosperous. - With Englands enemy, Spain, in Florida it was
also good to have a buffer colony between
Spanish lands and the Carolinas.
14- Farms had to be 500 acres or less, no slavery,
and no alcohol. The colony grew slowly and
Ogelthorpe had to loosen his rules to get
settlers. - Mary Musgrove, an English/Creek Indian helped
Ogelthorpe as a translator and peace negotiator
between the settlers and local Indians. - The settlers fought bravely against Spanish
incursions to keep their farms.
15The Backcountry
- Population growth in the back country had grown
as German immigrants and Scots-Irish, unwilling
to live in the original tidewater settlements
where English influence was strong, pushed
inland. - Those who could not secure good fertile land
along the coast headed for the backcountry. - Soon the interior was dotted with farms.
16- Anyone could choose to find a new home in the
backcountry on the frontier. In order to keep
everyone from leaving the cities the powerful
tidewater officials were obliged to relax
political policies and laws, land-grant
requirements and religious practices. - This movement into the foothills was of
tremendously important for the future of
America.
17- Living on the edge of the Indian country,
frontier families built cabins, cleared fields in
the forests and cultivated maize (corn) and
wheat. The men wore buckskin leather made from
the skin of deer or sheep.The womens clothes
were made of cloth they spun at home. Their food
consisted of venison, wild turkey and fish. - For fun they had great barbecues, dances,
housewarmings for newly married couples, shooting
matches and contests for making quilted blankets.
Quilts remain an American tradition today.
18Colonial Schools
- Of equal importance were the foundations of
American education and culture established during
the colonial period. - Noteworthy was the growth of a school system
maintained by the government. - The Puritans emphasis on reading directly from
the Scriptures underscored the importance of
literacy.
19- In the Southern colonies, wealthy planters and
merchants imported private tutors from Ireland or
Scotland to teach their children or they sent
their children to school in England. Having these
other opportunities, the upper classes in the
Tidewater were not interested in paying for
public schools. The great distances between farms
and plantations made having community schools
difficult.
20- The desire for learning did not stop at the
backcountry. The Scots-Irish, though living in
primitive cabins, were firm believers of
learning. They made great efforts to attract
learned ministers to their settlements to teach
the children as well as preach to the
congregations.
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24Goodbye !!