The Southern Colonies

The Southern Colonies
Coming to America
With the growth of plantations, there was an increasing
need for workers in the newly settled colonies. English
criminals, Irish and Scottish prisoners of war and African
enslaved captives, worked the plantations without pay.
Established as
a safe place for
Maryland law
declared that every
person planting
tobacco must also
plant two acres of
Baltimore, founded in
1729, was Maryland’s
port and became the
colony’s largest
Mason Dixon Line
was the boundary
between Maryland
and Pennsylvania
Baltimore passed a
law called the Act of
Toleration in 1649.
the act granted
Protestants and
Catholics the right to
worship freely.
Virginia Expands
Bacon’s Rebellion
Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy young
planter was a leader in the western part
of Virginia. Opposed colonial
government because it was dominated
by easterners. His rebellion showed that
settlers were not willing to be restricted
1676 Bacon led angry westerners in
attacks on Native American villages and
set fire to the capital and drove the
Governor into exile
Governor declares Bacon “the greatest
rebel that ever was in Virginia”
Bacon’s sudden illness and death kept
him from taking charge of Virginia
Northern and Southern Carolina
Northern part of
Carolina settled
mostly by farmers
from Virginia
Southern part of
• Grew tobacco
• Sold forest products such as
timber & tar
• Fertile farmland, good harbors
• Trade in deerskin, lumber,
beef. Rice becomes colony’s
leading crop.
Economics & Slave labor in the
• In the 1740’s Eliza Lucas developed an important Carolina
crop- Indigo.
• Indigo, a blue flowering plant, was used to dye textiles.
Known as the “blue gold” of Carolina.
• Enslaved Africans who arrived in the Carolinas worked the
rice fields.
• Growing rice required much labor, so the demand for slaves
• By 1708 more than half the people living in southern
Carolina were enslaved Africans.
• Settlers wanted a greater role in the colony’s government,
in 1729 Carolina became 2 colonies- North and South
The colony protected the other British
colonies from Spanish Florida
Savannah, a town built for the hardworking,
independent and Protestant. Size of the farms
was small, banned slavery, Catholics and rum.
Founded in 1733, the last
of the British colonies in
America to be established
Georgia soon had a higher percentage of nonBritish settlers than any other British colony
in the Americas.
Colonist’s demands and the colony’s slow
growth led to larger landholdings and a lift on
the bans of slavery and rum.
The British were not the only
Europeans who were colonizing
1663 New
became a
royal colony
Territory was called Louisiana
in honor of King Louis XIV.
1718 French governor
founded the port of New
French settlement in North America
advanced very slowly. French colonies grew
so slowly that Native Americans were not
pushed off their lands. The French had better
relations with the Native Americans than
other European settlers. They lived among
the people, learned their language and
respected their ways.
• New Spain
– Early 1700’s Spain
establishes military posts
in Texas
– Spanish priests built
missions along the Pacific
coast. Enabling the Spanish
to lay claim to California
– Converted Native
Americans to Christianity,
forced them to serve as
laborers in the fields and
European conflicts in North America
When the 2 countries
were at war in Europe,
fighting often broke out
between British and
French colonists
France and Britain were
principal rivals of the
colonial period. Both
nations were expanding
their settlements in
North America
Britain and France
fought several wars in
the 1700’s
In the late 1700s &
early 1800’s, wars in
Europe between the
British and the French
would shape events in
the colonies even
more decisively.
Chapter 3 Section4 Vocabulary
• Indentured servant- laborer who agrees to
work without pay for a certain period of time
in exchange for passage to America.
• Constitution- a formal plan of government
• Debtor- person or country that owes money.
• Tenant farmer- farmer who works land owned
by another and pays rent either in cash or
• Mission- a religious settlement.

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