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13 Colonies_ Comparing Regions New England, Middle, and Southern.mp413 Colonies_ Colonial Governments & English Influence.mp413 Colonies Part II_ Settlement of Additional Colonies - U.S. History.mp4In the following questions, you will learn about the origin of the Southern Colonies. The Southern Colonies made up the southern part of the Thirteen Colonies, which were ruled by Great Britain in the 1600s and 1700s. The population of the Southern Colonies included enslaved and free people of African descent, Native American groups, and European settlers. The map below shows the Thirteen Colonies in 1750. Look at the map.
What happened to the Roanoke settlement?
We don't know. The colony lasted less than five years. In 1590, English sailors found that all the people, houses, and tools of the colony had disappeared!
A mysterious carving
The only clues about what happened were the word "CROATOAN" carved into a fence post and the letters "CRO" carved into a tree. Croatoan was the name of a nearby island.
Historians still haven't figured out what happened to the first Southern colony.
In 1607, English settlers founded a colony in present-day Virginia. They called their settlement Jamestown. The group in charge of Jamestown, the Virginia Company, hoped the settlers in their new colony would quickly find gold or silver.
The Starving Time
One of the leaders of the Jamestown Colony wrote the passage below. It describes what happened to the colony in the winter of 1609:
To satisfy cruel hunger [we ate] boots, shoes, or any other leather some could come by . . . to do those things which seem incredible as to dig up dead corpses out of graves and to eat them.
In other words, the colonists were so desperate for food that they ate clothing and even dead bodies! During what was later called the Starving Time, 240 out of Jamestown's 300 colonists died.
Despite its early hardships, the colony of Virginia and its capital of Jamestown grew over time. As the colony grew, the colonists often tried to take the land of local native groups, such as the Powhatan. During the early 1600s, the Virginian colonists fought a series of wars against the Powhatan. In 1622, the Powhatan attacked Jamestown and other colonial settlements. The following passage was written by a settler in the colony of Virginia and describes the English reaction to the attack. Read the passage.
The English [took] revenge by destroying with fire and sword everything of the Indians; they . . . destroyed both the houses and crops of the Indians, took [the Powhatan leader] prisoner and shot him on the very place where his house stood before it was burned down. On this spot the English then built a new town.
Unknown author, Voyage of Anthony Chester. Charles Edward Bishop, translator, "Two Tragical Events." Copyright 1901 by William and Mary Quarterly. Based on Peter Vander Aa, translator, 1707.
Were the Virginian colonists always in conflict with local native groups?
No. During the first years of the Virginia Colony, the Powhatan leader helped the colony survive by giving the colonists food. One of the most famous figures during this time was Chief Powhatan's daughter: Pocahontas.
Pocahontas in legend
The settler and explorer John Smith wrote about Pocahontas in his famous book about the early years of Jamestown. In his book, Smith wrote that Pocahontas once saved his life. Historians aren't sure if John Smith's story is true.
Pocahontas in history
Historians do know that Pocahontas was eventually captured by the colonists of Jamestown. She married one of the colonists and traveled to England. Pocahontas died of disease while traveling back to Virginia from England.
Beginning in 1619, Virginia's colonial government included a governor and a law-making group called the House of Burgesses. The House of Burgesses was the first representative government in the Thirteen Colonies. In other words, the colonists selected their representatives. To vote for representatives in the House of Burgesses, a Virginian had to be free, male, and a property owner.
Did Virginians get to vote for all their governing officials?
No. Virginians only got to elect representatives to the House of Burgesses. The House of Burgesses made local laws for the colony. But, the king of England appointed, or selected, many other colonial officials, such as the royal governor.
Did the other 12 colonies get to vote for their representatives?
Yes. Each of the Thirteen Colonies created their own local representative governments over time.
Some of the colonies had stricter property ownership rules for voting. As a result, only a small percentage of the male population could vote in some colonies. Women and enslaved people could not vote in any of the colonies.
The wars with Native American groups were costly for Virginia. To avoid more wars, the colonial governor set policies that made it harder for Virginian colonists to take Native American land in the late 1600s.Many Virginians did not like these new policies. In 1676, they violently rebelled against the government in Virginia. This event became known as Bacon's Rebellion.
Why were the members of Bacon's group so angry with the government?
By the 1670s, the best land in the Virginia colony was already owned by wealthy people. Poor Virginians felt that there were no opportunities for them to own land. So, many Virginians were angry at William Berkeley, the colonial governor, for making it harder for them to take Native American land.
The members of Bacon's Rebellion also viewed the government as corrupt. For example, they were angry that Berkeley gave the best land and trade opportunities to his friends.
How did the rebellion end?
The British government sent soldiers to put down the rebellion.
Nathaniel Bacon died of disease before the British soldiers arrived. The Virginian government executed 23 of the rebel leaders.
Virginia was not the only colony where there were conflicts between different groups. For example, the colony of Maryland, which was founded in 1632, was often divided between people of different religions. In Maryland's early years, the two Christian groups of Protestants and Catholics were often in conflict. In 1649, the colonial government of Maryland passed a law called the Maryland Toleration Act. To tolerate something is to allow it. The goal of this law was to stop the fighting and encourage cooperation between Catholics and Protestants.
Did the Maryland Toleration Act allow all groups to practice their religious beliefs freely?
No. Here were some of the groups not protected by the act:
Unitarians and some other Christian groups
Jews and other non-Christian religious groups
atheists, or people who did not believe in any god
People of these groups could still be legally persecuted, or punished by the government, for their beliefs.
The colony of Carolina was established in 1663 by a group of men called the Lords Proprietor. Carolina was later divided into the colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina.
Pirate attack!
Along with the chance of Spanish attack, Carolinian colonists had to worry about pirates. Pirates would attack ships near Carolina and then retreat back to their hiding spots on Caribbean islands.
Some pirates would even attack the settlements of Carolina! For example, in 1718 the famous pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, blocked the port of Charles Town (present-day Charleston), South Carolina, with his pirate ships. He robbed ships trying to leave Charleston until the town agreed to pay him to leave.
Many people moved to the Carolina colony for economic reasons, or for reasons related to business. But other people settled there for religious reasons.
What was life like for Jewish people in the colonies?
During the 1600s and 1700s, Jews were often persecuted, or harassed and punished, for their beliefs, both in Europe and in the American colonies. Often, Jews were forced to leave their homes as a result of the persecution. For example, some of the first Jews who came to Carolina came from the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean because they had been forced to leave.
Most Jews in the Thirteen Colonies lived in port cities, such as Charles Town (present-day Charleston), South Carolina. In these places, it was easier to find work and build communities that included other Jews.
Eventually, Jewish groups in port cities grew large enough to establish synagogues, or Jewish places of worship.
As the Carolina colony grew, settlers pushed into more Native American land. This expansion led to conflict between Native American groups and settlers. One of the bloodiest conflicts was the Yamasee War (1715–1717).
The Yamasee War involved many different native groups. Some of these groups fought with the Carolinian colonists, and others fought against the Carolinians.
The Carolina colony originally included both present-day South Carolina and North Carolina. But in 1712, North Carolina was separated from South Carolina and became a new colony.
Why were North and South Carolina divided?
Even when they were part of one colony, the people of the northern and southern parts of Carolina lived very different lives:
The economy of southern Carolina was based around plantations, or large farms, controlled by a small group of people.
The economy of northern Carolina was based around small farms.
Due to these differences, the Lords Proprietor often appointed different sets of officials to run the different parts of the colony. Eventually, the Lords Proprietor divided the Carolina colony in two.
In 1732, Georgia was the last Southern colony to be founded. James Oglethorpe started the colony as a way to help poor people in England, but he believed there were other good reasons to start the colony as well.
The passage below is adapted from a speech that Oglethorpe gave about the need for a new colony.
In America there are fertile lands for all the . . . poor in England . . . By such a colony, many families, who would otherwise starve, will be provided for, and made masters of houses and lands . . . England may be supplied from Georgia . . . with silk, wine, oil, dyes, medicines, and many other materials for manufactures. The example of a whole colony, who shall behave in a just, moral, and religious manner, will contribute towards the conversion of the Indians.
manufactures: goods that people make
conversion: change to a new religion
Oglethorpe's dream
Oglethorpe hoped that Georgia would be different from the other Southern colonies. He did not want Georgia to be controlled by a small group of rich plantation owners. He wanted Georgia to be made up of people who owned small farms.
To accomplish his plan, Oglethorpe created a series of laws for Georgia. These laws included bans on both slavery and owning more than fifty acres of land.
Many Georgia colonists were upset by these rules. They thought Oglethorpe had no business telling them what to do. They also believed that his laws stopped Georgia from becoming more wealthy. Eventually, all of Oglethorpe's rules were repealed, or canceled.
During its early years, Georgia banned slavery. But many Georgians disagreed with this policy.
Did Georgia keep its ban on slavery?
No. In 1751, Georgia's ban on slavery was lifted. By that point, many Georgians argued that slavery was too profitable to ban. Soon, Georgia's economy began to look like the other Southern colonies, with large plantations worked by enslaved people.
The Southern Colonies made up five of Great Britain's Thirteen Colonies in North America. The oldest colony that survived, Virginia, was settled in 1607. The original settlers for this colony struggled with starvation, disease, and warfare, but eventually the colony grew. Other colonies had challenges as well. For example, Maryland was often divided between Protestants and Catholics. The leaders of this colony tried to pass a law to stop the fighting between religious groups. Further south, the Carolina colony was established in 1665. Eventually, this colony was broken in two between the northern and southern parts. The last of the Southern colonies, Georgia, was founded with the goal of helping poor people in England start new lives. At first, this colony tried to ban slavery. However, like the other Southern colonies, the economy of this colony eventually became based around slavery.
How do we remember the history of the Southern Colonies?
The history of the Southern Colonies is remembered in many different ways. For example, in Williamsburg, Virginia, visitors can explore colonial buildings and observe actors showing what life was like in a colonial town.
But there has been disagreement about what parts of colonial history get shown at Colonial Williamsburg. For example, people have complained that Colonial Williamsburg ignored the role of slavery in colonial history. In recent years, Colonial Williamsburg has tried to include more history about enslaved people.
In the following questions, you will learn about the economy and the laborers of the Southern Colonies. The Southern Colonies made up the southern part of the Thirteen Colonies. The two maps below give information about the land in the colonies. The first map shows soil fertility, or the quality of the soil. Soil that is more fertile is better for growing crops. The second map shows the length of the growing season.
The dangers of good weather
The warm weather in the Southern Colonies made it easier to grow crops. But it also helped spread disease. For example, warm weather was good for mosquitoes carrying malaria, a blood disease. Newcomers to the Southern Colonies often got sick and died within a few years.
The fertile soil and long growing season of the Southern Colonies allowed the colonists to grow crops that could not be grown in other colonies. As a result, the economy of the Southern Colonies was based around growing cash crops, or crops meant to be sold in places that could not grow them.
Did all colonial farmers grow cash crops?
No. Growing cash crops often took more time and resources than colonial farmers had. Most colonial farmers grew food for their families. Subsistence farming is when a farmer grows crops mainly for his or her own family's use.
Are there subsistence farmers today?
Yes! Some farmers around the world still practice subsistence farming. Usually, farmers and their family members will work a small amount of land together.
This map shows where different cash crops were grown in the Southern Colonies.
What is indigo?
The indigo plant was grown in many places with hot climates, including the Southern Colonies. Indigo can be used to make blue dye. People used blue dye to make colorful clothes.
Cash crops from the Southern Colonies were sold all over the world. At the same time, the Southern Colonies received goods from other places.
The map below shows how the Southern Colonies participated in world trade. The arrows pointing away from the Southern Colonies show exports, or goods that the Southern Colonies sold to other places. The arrows pointing toward the Southern Colonies show imports, or goods and people that the Southern Colonies bought from other places. Look at the map.
Trading in secret
Many countries wanted to buy cash crops like tobacco. But, starting in the 1650s, England passed a series of laws that said that the American colonies could only trade with England and its colonies. England did not want the Thirteen Colonies to trade with countries such as the Netherlands and France, since England was often at war with these countries.
Despite the laws, colonists would smuggle, or illegally trade, goods with other places. Colonial smugglers would secretly buy goods from or sell goods to other countries such as the Netherlands and France. Some colonists became wealthy from smuggling goods.
It was hard for the English to stop colonial smuggling, and English authorities often complained that the colonists did not care about following English law.
The economy of the Southern Colonies depended on growing cash crops to export. Growing, picking, and shipping cash crops often required large amounts of time and effort. To produce these crops, landowners depended on several types of laborers, or workers. Many of the laborers in the Southern Colonies were indentured servants. Indentured servants usually came from other countries and signed a contract to work for landowners for a certain number of years.
How long was the contract for an indentured servant?
Indentured servants agreed to work four to seven years for a landowner. But landowners could add more years to the contract as punishment for running away or disobeying orders.
Why would anyone decide to be an indentured servant?
Land was expensive in England. After their contract was done, indentured servants usually gained some land to farm in North America. Even though life was hard in the Southern Colonies, many poor Europeans thought indentured servitude was their best chance for a better future.
The adapted passages below were written by two people who were indentured servants in the southern colony of Maryland. The first passage comes from a book written by a former indentured servant to convince English people to become indentured servants in Maryland. The second passage comes from an indentured servant's letter home to her family. Read the passages.
A passage by George Alsop, a former indentured servant
The servants here in Maryland have no reason to complain about the strictness of servitude, lack of provisions, or need of apparel. They claim the privilege to rest three hours in the day within the house.
strictness of servitude: punishment
provisions: food
apparel: clothing
George Alsop, A Character of the Province of Maryland, 1666.
A letter by Elizabeth Sprigs, an indentured servant
I am toiling almost all day and night . . . and then tied up and whipped to that degree that you'd not serve an animal. There is hardly anything but corn and salt to eat . . . and we are almost naked with no shoes nor stockings to wear.
toiling: working
Elizabeth Sprigs, letter to her father, 1756.
Who was right?
Many indentured servants experienced hardships similar to those of Elizabeth Sprigs. Masters often beat their indentured servants, or tried to save money by giving them little food and poor clothing. Indentured servants could sue their masters in court, but juries made up of other masters usually decided the case. So, juries usually sided with masters.
George Alsop was trying to convince English people to move to Maryland, so he wanted to make indentured servitude seem more pleasant than it often was.
In addition to indentured servants, southern landowners also forced enslaved people to grow their crops. By the late 1600s, enslaved Africans and their descendants outnumbered indentured servants in the Southern Colonies.
The table below shows some of the similarities and differences between indentured servants and enslaved people.
Did enslaved people and indentured servants ever work together?
Yes. Enslaved people and indentured servants often worked the same fields to grow cash crops. As a result, they sometimes formed friendships.
Sometimes, indentured servants and enslaved people would help each other escape a harsh plantation owner. However, these runaways could be punished for trying to escape.
Plantation owners worried that cooperation between poor white servants and African American enslaved people could lead to rebellion. So, the colonial governments passed laws to harshly punish any servants or enslaved people caught planning to rebel or escape.
Enslaved Africans came to the Southern Colonies along triangular trade routes. The map below shows an example of such a route. One part of the route was called the Middle Passage.
What was the Middle Passage like?
Enslaved people were crammed onto ships to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The journey could take 8 to 12 weeks.
During those weeks, enslaved people were chained together to keep them from trying to escape. Many enslaved people died of diseases or violence from enslavers along the way.
How many enslaved people crossed the Middle Passage?
We don't know for sure. Many of the shipping records have been lost. Historians estimate between 10 to 12.5 million enslaved people came to North and South America between the 1500s and 1800s.
Once they were in the Southern Colonies, most enslaved Africans lived on large farms called plantations. Look at the layout of a rice plantation in colonial South Carolina.
What was an enslaved person's life like on a plantation?
Most enslaved people worked from dawn until dusk in the heat. Slaveholders always looked for ways to force enslaved people to work even harder.
Often, enslaved people were sold to other plantations, separating them from their friends and family.
Plantations were owned and controlled by white Southern families. The adapted passages below come from two members of plantation-owning families. Each passage describes a typical day in the life of a plantation owner. Read the passages.
The diary of William Byrd II, owner of a tobacco plantation in Virginia, 1709
In the afternoon we played at billiards. I read news till the evening and then I took a walk about the plantation. The enslaved woman Moll was whipped for a hundred faults.
billiards: a game played on a table
faults: mistakes
A letter by Eliza Lucas, whose family owned a rice plantation in South Carolina, 1740
In general then I rise at five o'clock in the morning, read till seven—then take a walk in the gardens or fields, see what the servants are at their business, then to breakfast. The first hour after breakfast is spent in music.
servants: enslaved people
What was life like for a plantation owner?
Plantation owners such as William Byrd II were the most powerful people in the Southern Colonies. They usually controlled colonial legislatures such as the Virginia House of Burgesses. In other words, they wrote the laws, including the laws about slavery.
Plantation owners made money by selling cash crops to Europe. When the price for the crops was low, plantation owners found it hard to make enough money to buy expensive goods such as silk clothes. They also needed large amounts of money to buy more land and enslaved people. Many plantation owners borrowed money so they could remain powerful in society.
The passage below is adapted from the autobiography of a formerly enslaved man named Olaudah Equiano. In the adapted passage, Equiano describes an experience in Savannah, Georgia. Read the passage.
One Sunday night, I was with some negroes in their master's yard. He did not like to see any strange negroes in his yard. The master and his friend beat and mangled me in a shameful manner, leaving me near dead. I lost so much blood from the wounds I received, that I lay quite motionless. Early in the morning they took me away to jail.
negroes: an old term for African American people that is no longer used
mangled: hurt
The story of Olaudah Equiano
In 1789, a formerly enslaved person named Olaudah Equiano published his autobiography. Equiano told the story of being captured in Africa and carried across the Middle Passage. Unlike most enslaved people, Equiano's master let him learn to read and write.
After he was free, Equiano wrote his autobiography to convince people that slavery was wrong. He thought it was important for people to know about the hardships of being enslaved. His autobiography played an important role in the growing antislavery movement of the late 1700s.
As plantation slavery became more important to the Southern Colonies, wealthy plantation owners gained more political power. These plantation owners worried about how to control enslaved Africans and their children. So, colonial governments passed a series of laws about slavery.
Did all the Southern Colonies pass slavery laws like Virginia's?
Yes. During the colonial period, the population of enslaved people grew in all the Southern Colonies. Southern plantation owners worried what would happen if enslaved people rebelled. So, like Virginia, these Southern Colonies passed laws to better control the lives of enslaved people.
Enslaved people in the Southern Colonies had no legal or political rights, so they could not participate in court trials or elections. But enslaved people did resist, or fight against, slaveholders' control of their lives.
Did enslaved people also resist slavery in other ways?
Despite the risks and dangers of slavery, enslaved people still built strong communities and families. Colonial law did not recognize marriages between enslaved people. But enslaved people held their own weddings anyway. Slaveholders controlled most parts of enslaved people's lives. By marrying and building communities, enslaved people showed that slaveholders could not always control them.
There were several slave rebellions during the colonial period. The largest slave uprising was the 1739 Stono Rebellion in South Carolina.
The passage below is adapted from a report by the royal governor of South Carolina about the Stono Rebellion. According to the report, the goal of the rebels was to leave the Thirteen Colonies.
Our negroes were encouraged because the king of Spain declared freedom to all Negroes who should desert from the British colonies. On the ninth of September at night a great number of negroes arose in rebellion. They broke into a building where they got arms and killed twenty one white persons. They marched in a daring manner killing all they met and burning the houses on the road through which they passed.
desert: leave
arms: weapons
Did the Stono Rebellion succeed?
No. Colonial officials stopped the rebels before they escaped from Georgia to Spanish Florida. The colonial government executed 50 to 60 of the rebels and kept the others in slavery.
Still, many enslaved people during the colonial period escaped from the Southern Colonies to Spanish Florida. These escaped enslaved people would sometimes join Native American groups living in Florida.
The economy of the Southern Colonies depended on growing cash crops to export to European countries. To do this, Southern plantation owners wanted cheap laborers whom they could control. For example, many indentured servants signed contracts to work in the Southern Colonies for four to seven years. In exchange for their labor, these workers were often promised land. Southern plantation owners also used enslaved people as labor. Enslaved people included people who were captured in Africa and people who were descended from those captured there. Throughout the colonial period, slavery became more and more important to the economy of the Southern Colonies.
Slavery was legal in all of the Thirteen Colonies. But by the end of the colonial period, slavery was most common in the Southern Colonies. Slaveholders controlled most of the politics and wealth in the region. However, enslaved people succeeded in building traditions and communities.
Preserving tradition: the Gullah people
Enslaved Africans brought to the Southern Colonies were forced to change much about their ways of life. However, many African traditions survived in parts of coastal South Carolina and Georgia. The enslaved people of these regions developed their own language that blended English and African languages. Today, the descendants of these people are called the Gullah.
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