Unhealthy Chesapeake
 WHY WAS THE CHESAPEAKE AN UNHEALTHY
REGION OF THE COLONIES?
 HOW DID THIS IMPACT THE LIVES OF THE SETTLERS
WITHIN THIS REGION?
 Disease: Malaria, dysentery, and typhoid
 Short life expectancies
 Single men, smaller families
 Settlers will eventually develop immunities that will
allow for the colonies to flourish
Tobacco
 The poor man’s crop
 Ruined soil
 Led to westward expansion of Chesapeake colonieslooking for more land
 Greater demand for labor
 Indentured servants from Europe
Indentured Servitude
 Activity:
 Pages 63 in textbook
 Explain one of these terms and explain how it fostered
indentured servitude in the colonies.
 “Surplus”-Rows 1 & 4
 “Freedom dues”- Rows 2 & 5
 “Head-right” system- Rows 3 & 6
 How did the system of indentured servitude come to
favor the Masters rather than the servants?
First American Rebellion
 1676
 Many Virginians, landless single-men, are upset with
Governor William Berkeley
 Cruel, selfish ruler
 Berkeley would not protect settlers who expanded
westward to find arable land against Native attacks
 Reason: making illegal profit from fur trade with
Indians
First American Rebellion
 A Virginian planter, Nathanial Bacon, spurred a
rebellion against the Virginia governor
 Bacon- wealthy background, lawyer, settled south of
Richmond; not far from the Indian frontier
 Bacon & his followers attacked the Natives, forced
Berkeley out of Jamestown, and set fire to the
capital
 Bacon died during rebellion from disease, ending the
rebellion
Importance of Bacon’s
Rebellion
 Same year as King Philip’s war in MA
 Ignited unhappiness of landless former servants
 Leads to increased tensions between lower class
frontiersmen and the landowning gentry
 Will cause landowners to look for less troublesome
laborers
 African slaves
Colonial Slavery
 With a partner, read the worksheet on the Triangular
trade & answer the focusing questions
 Be ready to discuss!
 Complete for homework if needed
The Journey
Slavery and Southern
Society
 With the expansion of the African slave trade in the
colonies, Southern colonies began to pass slave
codes
 Similar to Barbados Slave Codes
 As slavery spread, so did the gaps in the South’s
social structure
 At the top of Southern society were a small percentage
of planters, “First Families of Virginia” or “FFVs”
 Majority of Southern society was made up of the lowly
small farmers
 Then landless whites, and at the bottom black slaves