Chapter 3 Section 4
“The Southern Colonies”
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Geography of the Southern Colonies
*1760s – Mason and Dixon hired to settle dispute
between boundaries of Delaware and
Pennsylvania
*Mason-Dixon Line divided Delaware and
Pennsylvania; after American Revolution, it was
line between northern states (slavery abolished)
and southern states (slavery continued)
*Southern colonies – Maryland, Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; coastline
is flat lowland with swampy areas while west side
is hills
*Climate is warm and humid; hot summers – long
growing season for tobacco and rice. Crops
required many workers in fields = slavery
Virginia Grows
*New settlers from Europe helped fact that
disease and difficult living conditions kept death
rate high
*By 1670s – more children because fewer were
dying at a young age; percentage of women in
population increased
Conflicts with Native Americans
*As Virginia’s white population increased, Native
Americans decreased (1675 – 2,000 left)
*Farmers took more land to plant tobacco
*Violent confrontations with Native Americans in
1622 and 1644 led to deaths of hundreds of
colonists although Native Americans lost both
times
Bacon’s Rebellion
*1660s – wealthy VA tobacco planters bought
most of good farmland near coast, leaving no land
for poorer colonists wanting to start own farms
(poor young male colonists forced to work on
plantations; angry because no land = no voting)
*Poorer colonists moved inland to find farmland;
fought with Native Americans but governor
reluctant to get involved because he benefited
from fur trade
*Nathaniel Bacon – leader of frontier settlers
*1675 – Bacon organized 1,000 westerners to
attack and kill Native Americans – governor
against Bacon – Bacon attacked Jamestown and
burned it to ground – governor ran away
*Bacon’s Rebellion ended when Bacon became
sick and died; governor hanged 23 of Bacon’s
followers but he could not stop English settlers
from moving onto Native American lands
Religious Toleration in Maryland
*1632 – King Charles II granted charter for
George Calvert, an English Catholic (Catholics
suffered discrimination in England), to set up a
colony where Catholics could live safely
(Maryland)
*First settlers in Maryland were Catholics and
Protestants; grew tobacco and fished in
Chesapeake Bay
*When Calvert died, his son, Lord Baltimore,
became proprietor (owner of a business or colony)
*As required by charter, there was a
representative assembly
*Fearing Catholics might lose their rights, Lord
Baltimore got assembly to pass Act of Toleration
in 1649. It welcomed all Christians and gave adult
male Christians right to vote and hold office.
Colonies in the Carolinas and Georgia
*1663 – King Charles II granted charter for new
colony to be established south of Virginia, in area
called Carolina
*Northern part of Carolina developed slowly;
lacked harbors and rivers for ships to travel;
settlers lived on small farms (tobacco) and some
produced lumber for shipbuilding
*Southern part of Carolina grew more quickly;
sugar grew in swampy lowlands (many settlers
from Barbados in West Indies and brought
enslaved people to grow sugar); soon colonists
used slave labor to grow rice which became area’s
most important crop
*Charles Town (now Charleston) became biggest
city in Southern Colonies
*Carolina became North Carolina and South
Carolina
Georgia
*Georgia founded because English were afraid
that Spain was about to expand its Florida colony
northward and because wealthy businessmen, led
by James Oglethorpe, wanted a colony where
there would be protection from English debtors
(people who owe money). English laws stated the
government could imprison debtors until they
paid what they owed.
*Georgia’s founders wanted Georgia to be a
colony of small farms, not large plantations, so
slavery was banned
*Restriction against slavery was unpopular with
settlers; by 1750s, slavery was legal in Georgia
Change in the Southern Colonies
*People along coast lived very differently from
people who settled inland on the frontier
The Tidewater Region
*Flat lowland along coastline that included
swampy areas
*Plantations – large farms especially in a hot
country where crops such as cotton, sugar, and
rice are grown
*Economy in Tidewater region dominated by
plantations (began in VA and MD when settlers
grew tobacco)
*Tidewater in SC and GA grew rice (required
many workers laboring in hot, humid, unhealthy
conditions); promoted spread of slavery – soon
enslaved population outnumbered free population
in SC
*Plantation system created society of slaveholders
and enslaved people and divided white community
into small group of wealthy people and larger
group with little or no land (most poor and lived
in backcountry South)
Backcountry
*Backcountry cut off from coast by poor roads
and long distances
*Families lived on isolated farms and often did not
legally own the land they farmed; few had
servants or enslaved people to help with work;
women and girls worked alongside males
*Backcountry people believed colonial
governments did not care about them