General Characteristics of Southern Colonies

• Dominated to a degree at least by – tobacco and rice (later cotton)

• – Mostly indentured servants until late 17th century (VA and MD), then

increasingly black slavery

• Large land holdings in the hands of a few – aristocratic (exceptions NC and some of GA)

• – Churches and schools were rare, too expensive

• – Needed fresh land to replace depleted soil due to tobacco farming

• Practiced some form of – Anglican Church was dominant

Chesapeake Colonies cont.• Labor shortages

– Unhealthy climate and high death rate• Disease• Indian raids

– Solutions• : under contract for set number of years

(usually ) in exchange for transatlantic passage– Early 17th century were given startup money, supplies, even land

sometimes after contract expired– Dominant system until late 17th Century

• : VA offered for each immigrant who paid his own passage or any plantation owner who paid for a white indentured servant’s passage

– By 1700 planters brought in almost 100,000 indentured servants, or 75% of all European immigrants to VA and MD

• : ( ) at first similar to indentured servants, colonists were too poor to afford, mid 1600’s VA began to differentiate between white and black

Life in the Chesapeake•

– Malaria, dysentery, typhoid– ½ of those born in VA and MD did not live past age 20– Roughly 10 year shorter life expectancy (25% of men reached

50, women 40 years)

• – Mostly single men in late teens and early 20s– Women married early were a scarcity

• Men had trouble finding wives, often did not

• – Increased immunities to disease and arrival of more women– 1700 VA had about 50,000 colonists, largest colony

MD about 30,000 colonists, third largest colony

Frustrated Freemen and Bacon's Rebellion• , about 1,000 Virginians rebelled

– Led by

• Resented VA Gov. friendly Indian policies– Berkeley refused to retaliate for a series of Indian attacks on

settlements• Controlled monopoly of the fur trade

• The crowd attacked Indians and chased Berkeley from , Virginia

• Bacon suddenly died from disease

• Berkeley then crushed the uprising, hanging more than 20 rebels– (Charles II complained of the penalties dealt by Berkeley!)

• Due to the rebellions and tensions started by Bacon, planters looked for less troublesome laborers to work their tobacco plantations

Colonial Slavery

• Africans brought to Jamestown in , by , they numbered only about 2,000 in VA– (only about 7% of the total population of the South)

• , wages in England rose number of indentured servants decreased – Also reports of negatives of indentured servitude

• , black slaves outnumbered white servants among new arrivals to Chesapeake region

Colonial Slavery, cont.• In 1698, the Royal African Company, first chartered in 1672,

lost its monopoly on carrying slaves to the colonies– Many Americans rushed to cash in on the slave trade

• Blacks accounted for half the population of VA by 1750– In SC, they outnumbered whites 2:1

• Most of the slaves came from the west coast of Africa

• Beginning in VA in 1662, statutes formally decreed the iron conditions of slavery for blacks– These earliest "slave codes" made blacks and their children the

property of the white masters for life

Proprietary Maryland• rather than • Granted to

– 1634– Wanted wealth– Haven for fellow

• – 1649 – Protestants now outnumbered Catholics–

• (death to anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus – Jews, atheists)

– Repealed in late 1600’s• Catholics lost their right to vote in elections for the Maryland assembly

Proprietary Carolina: A Restoration Reward

• 1663 eight nobles had been given land in return for their support during the Restoration, Charles II

• English Civil War – 1640s• Cromwell’s Protectorate – 1650s• Restoration Colonies

– Carolinas, NY, PA

• Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina 1669-70– Presumed to be written by – Combined democratic and aristocratic ideas

• 1729 royal colonies of South and North Carolina were formed from original Proprietorship

Early Carolina Society• South Carolina

– Originally based on trading furs and food to West Indies, by mid 1700s large plantations resembled the economy and culture of the West Indies

• North Carolina, – Officially created in 1712– Small self-sufficient farms, less slavery due to less

hospitable conditions for plantations – Became refuge for religious dissenters and poor whites

• Rhode Island of the South– Democratic views and autonomy from British control

• Impact of West Indies on Carolinas– West Indies (esp Barbados) developed plantation system based around

production– Increasingly relied on mainland British America for – Small farmers were crowded out and many moved to (with

slaves)