The first successful English settlement was Jamestown , Virginia in 1607. It was founded as a joint stock company (a company owned by a group of investors) called the Virginia Company. The Virginia Company hoped to make money off of the products and raw materials the colony would provide.
The first few years, however, were hard. Bitter cold winters, disease, and starvation killed many of the settlers. Fortunately, the local Native
Americans helped, allowing Jamestown to survive and grow. Many settlers came to the colony hoping to get rich and obtain land. Ultimately, the colony was saved when a man named John Rolfe discovered a new crop – tobacco! To attract laborers to help cultivate the more tobacco, Virginia instituted the headright system . This system promised 50 acres of land to those who would settle in the colony.
As mentioned when we discussed Virginia, southern society tended to be divided between rich plantation owners, poor farmers, and slaves. Southerners generally accepted class distinctions and the idea that the wealthy, upper class (known as the gentry) is superior to the lower, poorer class. People believed that male members of the upper class should be the ones in positions of power and authority. Public education did not exist for some time in the southern colonies. Any education that occurred among poorer southerners took place in the home. Meanwhile, wealthy

southerners either schooled their children at home, hired private tutors, or sent them to Europe to receive a formal education. Unlike colonies further north, Great Britain established the southern colonies predominantly for economic reasons rather than religious (Maryland, which was started as a colony for Catholics, was the one exception). For this reason, rich landowners tended to remain part of the Church of
England (Anglican Church) because it was in their political and economic interest.
Over time, Methodist and Baptist congregations became common among poorer southerners and settlers along the frontier because they were willing to adopt new methods for reaching rural areas.
Tobacco became incredibly popular in Europe and ended up being an important cash crop for Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Meanwhile, the hot and wet climates of South Carolina and Georgia made rice and indigo important crops further South. Southern colonies also produced tar, pitch, and turpentine from the abundant forests that existed in the region. The South's reliance on staple crops
(crops that are in large demand and provide the bulk of a region's income) like tobacco and rice led to the rise of the plantation system and the South's heavy reliance on slavery as well. Because these large plantations tended to lie along rivers and inland waterways, plantation owners often had direct access to shipping without having to first transport their products over land to major ports. As a result, the South did not develop the major centers of commerce and large cities that arose in the North (i.e., New York, Boston, and Philadelphia).