The Southern
Colonies
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Maryland
• The Maryland Colony was founded by the Calverts. A family of
wealthy English landowners.
• Their goal was to make money, but also to provide refuge for
Catholics. Catholics in England could not worship as they
wished.
• George Calvert was also called “Lord Baltimore.” He was a
member of The Virginia Company. He asked King Charles I for
a charter for a new colony along Chesapeake Bay, north of
Virginia.
• George died before the charter was signed in 1632. His son,
Cecilius Calvert, became the new Lord Baltimore & owner of the
new colony of Maryland.
•
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Maryland
Cecilius chose his other
brother, Leonard, to be
Maryland’s first governor.
The Calvert brothers
planned their colony
carefully to avoid a “Starving
Time” like Virginia (yes-this
should sound familiar!)
Leo
In 1633 Calvert sent first
colonists to Maryland. Most
were indentured servants.
Landed near the mouth of the
Potomac River. They founded
their first settlement- St. Mary’s
City.
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Life in maryland & virginia
Maryland
Virginia
•Controlled by Calverts
•Largest English Colony in NA
•Welcomed any different religions
•Larger population
•Passed “Toleration Act.”
•Controlled by King
•Next to Chesapeake bay & Potomac River.
•Mild Climate
•Fertile soil for growing tobacco crops
•Have governors
•Elected representatives to assemblies
In 1649 Maryland Assembly passed the “Toleration Act,”
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which allowed religious
freedom in the colony.
Toleration Act
The carolina Colonies
•As the colonies of Maryland and Virginia grew, colonists
started building villages and farms farther south.
•In 1663 England’s Charles II granted land for another colony
called Carolina. It stretched from Virginia to Florida.
•Carolina was divided among 8 English leaders called Lords
Proprieters.
•The Carolina Colony became too large and difficult to
govern. In 1712 the colony divided into 2 new colonies-North
Carolina and South Carolina.
Tobacco Field
North Carolina
South
Carolina
Land was flat and swampy, not
good for growing tobacco.
•NC was hilly and perfect for
growing tobacco and corn.
West Indies settlers arrived with
African slaves. The colony began
to prosper.
Rice was the most important crop.
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Georgia
•England, France and Spain claimed area south of
South Carolina. This made King George II
unhappy-he wanted control of that area.
•James Oglethorpe, a wealthy English leader, had
an idea to send debtors-people who owed moneyto settle the colony. He wanted to give them a
chance at a new life
•KG II loved the idea and granted J.O. and his
partner a charter. Named the colony Georgia in
honor of gool ol’ Georgy.
•In 1773 the first group arrived in Georgia and
founded Savannah.
James Oglethorpe did not allow:
1)Trade with American Indians
•Slavery
•Huge farms
Colonists illegally imported slaves. In 1751
Georgia’s leaders allowed slavery. Sorry
James
Georgia’s colony
prospered as a
result of plantations
and slave labor.
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Heading west
•By the 1700s most cities, farms, and
plantations in the colonies were
located near the coast (Coastal Plain).
•Very few colonists settled in the
Piedmont-the land between the
Coastal Plain the and Appalachian
Mountains. Known as “backcountry”
because it was in back of the area
settled by Europeans.
•Settlers started moving using an
American Indian trail. Became wide
enough for wagons to use and
became known as the “The Great
Wagon Road.”
Conflicts with indians
•The SC settlements were taking
over the tribe lands of thousands
of American Indians.
Resentment grew.
•The Tuscarora Village of Chattawka
was destroyed by German & Swiss
settlers to build the settlement of
New Bern. Some colonists were
upset with the unfair treatment of
Indians.
•The Tuscarora attacked
several settlements
hoping to frighten away
settlers. This lead to the
the Tuscaroro War.
•War ended in 1713. The Tuscaroro Indians were. . .
•Killed during that war (over 950)
•Captured and sold into slavery
•Sent to West Indies to work on plantations
•Died fighting over land and trade, post war
•Died in large numbers from European diseases (smallpox/measles)
Settlers in the Southern Colonies
continued pushing Indians away from
their lands.
American Indians decided
to move west to lands the
European settlers hadn’t
yet reached. Eventually
the settlers followed.
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Life in the south
•First Africans arrived in Virginia
in 1619. Soon thousands of
enslaved Africans were brought
to the colonies. Taken from their
homes, chained together in ships
& sold in the cities.
•At first slaves were indentured.
Assemblies passed laws making
slavery legal. It became
institutionalized-a part of life in
all of the colonies.
•By mid 1700s slavery was
legal in all 13 colonies.
slaves
Children of
enslaved
people were
also slaves.
Families were
often split up
and sold to
different owners.
Slave treatment
varied with owners.
They were free to
beat, whip, or insult
their slaves. The law
did not protect them.
No hope 
Many worked on
plantations. By
1750 over
200,000 slaves
lived in this
region
Slaves dealt with
hardships by singing
African songs and
telling stories about
Africa. This helped
to preserve their
culture.
Some slaves
resisted in small
ways. Broke
tools, pretended
to be sick,
worked slowly.
Christianity was
also a source of
strength.
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Plantation life
• Most slaves in SC lived and
worked on plantations.
• Planters and plantation owners
became the richest people in the
SC from cash crops and slave
labor.
• Some plantation owners began as
poor indentured servants. Others
were wealthy English settlers who
were granted land by the King.
• As planters grew richer, the
amount of land they owned grew.
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Plantation set up
workshop
kitchen
Main building was the
planter’s house, 2-3
stories high. Slaves
helped to build.
Overseers’ house is
near the planter’s
house. They watched
over the field slaves.
workshop
There were many
buildings
surrounding the
planter’s house.
Two types of slaves:
House slaves who worked in the planter’s home
Field slaves who worked in fields raising crops.
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Slave houses were
far from planter’s.
One room, wood
building.
•Planters did not work in the field. They managed the
plantation and provided food and housing for everyone who
worked there.
•Planter’s duties included public service, often judges or
colonial assembly members.
•There were very few schools due to the distance between
plantations.
•Planters hired private tutors for the children. The tutors lived
and taught on the plantations. Enslaved children did not
receive an education.
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Small farms
• Most Southern Colonists
lived and worked on small
farms. They planted and
harvested their own crops.
• Families on small farms
lived in one story homes. •Owned little furniture other than beds
Kids slept in the loft where •Lived far from other small farms
•Church services were religious & social
goods were stored.
• Very few became wealthy.
•Some traveled hours to get to the closest church
•Most did not own slaves. If they did, it was 1 or 2
•Lived and worked close to slaves, but not treated
as equals.
Free africans
•Not all Africans remained slaves. Some escaped,
others bought their freedom.
•Some free Africans bought land and started their
own farms.
•Former slave, Anthony Johnson, bought land in
Virginia and became a wealthy tobacco planter.
He even bought a slave of is very own-Casor. . .
go figure.
•Some free Africans bought enslaved relatives to
free them.
•Some risked their lives and ran away from their
owners. Some were captured and returned to
their owner. . .gulp.
•Some Africans found help in
Spanish Florida from the
American Indian tribes.
The Seminole Indians provided
food & shelter. They even
gave them land to grow crops.
In return they agreed to give
1/3 of their crops to the
Indians.
Former slaves started dressing
and talking like Seminole
Indians. They became known
as the “Black Seminoles”.
Fort mose
•Free Africans in
Spanish Florida started
their own communities.
•In 1738 a new town for
Free Africans was
settled.
•The first settlement in
North America for free
Africans was Fort Mose.
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The Southern Economy
•Plantations produced tons of cash crops each year. They
were shipped to markets in England and the West Indies to
be sold.
•Plantations in different colonies grew different crops
depending on climate and soil conditions.
Southern North
Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia
were too warm & wet
for tobacco crops.
Their main cash crop
was
rice.
Rice was such an important cash crop for South
Carolina
Maryland, Virginia
and North
Carolina’s main
cash crop was
tobacco.
that rice became known as “Carolina
Gold”
•Landowners in dry land
grew indigo plants. From
these they made indigo, a
blue dye used in the cloth
making process.
•Eliza Lucas Pickney
experimented with indigo
plants. She spent several
years growing different kinds
of indigo.
•South Carolina settlers
were selling 1 million pounds
of indigo a year to cloth
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makers in Europe.
•Plantations were the most
important part of the economy in the
Southern Colonies. But, they still
depended on others for goods and
services. This is called
interdependence.
•Plantation owners needed people
to sell their crops. They hired a
broker-a person who is paid to buy
and sell for someone else.
•Planters would send their broker to
England or the West Indies to sell
their crops. They would send a list
of items the broker was to purchase
for them while they were there.
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Southern port towns
grew richer from
exporting cash
crops. Norfolk and
Savannah grew into
the largest towns &
cities.
Ships from England arrived with imported tea, coffee,
furniture, and silverware to be sold. Those ships sailed
back to England loaded with tobacco, rice, and indigo.
Most successful plantations & cities were
often located near ports or deep rivers.
This location was easy to ship crops to
England
.
•By 1740, ships sailing
from Charlestown
carried
30 million pounds of rice to England every year.
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•Baltimore, Maryland prospered by exporting grain and
tobacco. It also became a major center for shipbuilding.
•Farming was an important industry in the Southern
Colonies due to its natural resources.
•Many settlers in the backcountry made a living as hunters
and trappers (deer & beaver).
•Wilmington, North Carolina became an important shipping
center for forest products because of its location on the
Cape Fear River. Fertile soil, lots of trees. Plenty to build
sawmills.
•Trees were also used to make naval stores. These trees
provided tar, turpentine, and pitch needed to waterproof the
wood & rope on a ship.
•Shipbuilding became a large industry in the colonies. In the
1700s, Baltimore, Maryland’s shipyards were well known for
improving the production of ships. They also developed the
“Baltimore Clipper”- one of the world’s fastest sailing ships.
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