The Southern Colonies

The slave colonies

Virginia

• Named after the Virgin Queen (Queen Elizabeth)• Main Crop:

– Tobacco• Reason settled:

– MONEY!!!• City of Mention:

– Jamestown• Relations with Native Americans:

– Good at first b/c of Powhatan and his daughter Pocahontas but then the relationship soured

The CarolinasNorth and South Carolina

Settling the “Lower South”

The West Indies Way Station to Mainland America

1670 a group of small English farmers from the West Indies arrived in Carolina. Were squeezed out by sugar barons. Brought a few black slaves and a model of the

Barbados slave code with them. Slavery was heritable Masters can do as they please – including

mutilation and burning alive

The King Charles II granted Carolina to 8 supporters [Lord Proprietors]. They hoped to use Carolina to supply their plantations

in Barbados with food and export wine, silk, and olive oil to Europe.

What does this mean?

Colonizing the Carolinas

Carolina developed close economic ties to the West Indies. Many Carolinian settlers were originally from the West

Indies. They used local Savannah Indians to enslave other

Indians [about 10,000] and send them to the West Indies [and some to New England].

1707 Savannah Indians decided to migrate to PA. Why? Who lived in PN? PA promised better relations with whites. Carolinians decided to “thin” the Savannahs before

they could leave bloody raids killed most of them by 1710. Why do you think they would do this?

Why did they want

to thin them out?

Port of Charles Town, SC

Named for King Charles II of England.Became the busiest port in the South.

Many slaves were taken through this port

City with aristocratic feel.Religious toleration attracted diverse inhabitants.

What does

aristocratic

mean?

The primary export.Rice was still an exotic food in England. Was grown in Africa,

so planters imported West African slaves.

These slaves had a genetic trait that made them partially immune to malaria.

By 1710 black slaves were a majority in Carolina.

Crops of the Carolinas: Rice

American Long Grain Rice

Crops of theCarolinas: Indigo

In colonial times, the main use for indigo was as a dye for spun cotton threads that were woven into cloth for clothes.Today in the US, the main use for indigo is a dye for cotton work clothes & blue jeans.

Rice & Indigo Exportsfrom SC & GA: 1698-

1775

Used slave labor

Crops of the Carolinas: Tobacco

Tobacco

Crops of the Carolinas: Cotton

• Later cotton became an important crop

Slave Labor • Many slaves were almost immediately put to work in South Carolina's• There was no harder, or more unhealthy, work possible than working in a

rice field:

“negroes, anckle and even mid-leg deep in water which floats an ouzy mud, and exposed all the while to a burning sun which makes the very air they breathe hotter than the human blood; these poor wretches are then in a furness of stinking putrid effluvia: a more horrible employment can hardly be imagined.”

• 2 out of every 3 African-American children on rice plantations failed to reach their sixteenth birthday

• one out of every three slave children on the cotton plantations died before reaching the age of 16, nearly

• over 1/3of all slave children died before their 1st birthday.

The Emergence of North CarolinaNorthern part of Carolina shared a border with VA VA dominated by aristocratic planters who were

generally Church of England members. People moved from VA moved south to northern

Carolina. Poor farmers with little need for slaves. Religious dissenters.

Distinctive traits of North Carolinians Irreligious & hospitable to pirates. Strong spirit of resistance to authority.

1712 NC officially separated from SC.

What is the Church of England?

Home to Blackbeard

Conflict With Spanish Florida

Catholic Spain hated all of the Protestants on their borders (in the Carolinas).Anglo-Spanish Wars The Spanish conducted border raids on Carolina. Either inciting local Native Americans to attack or

attacking themselves.By 1700 Carolina was too strong to be wiped out by the Spanish!

What is an example of

a Protestant?

GeorgiaThe Buffer

Colony

18c Southern Colonies

Late-Coming Georgia

Founded in 1733.Last of the 13 colonies.Named in honor of King George II.Founded by James Oglethorpe.

Georgia--The “Buffer” ColonyJames Oglethorpe created Georgia

Main Reason for Creating Georgia: As a “buffer” between the valuable Carolinas &

Spanish Florida & French Louisiana. Received subsidies

from British govt. to offset costs of defense.

Export silk and wine. A haven for debtors

thrown in to prison.Determined to keep slavery out! Slavery found in GA

by 1750.

Slavery and

alcohol were

originally

prohibited.

The Port City of Savannah

Diverse community. All Christians except Catholics enjoyed religious

toleration.Missionaries worked among debtors and Indians most famous was John Wesley. (he founded Methodism)

How did the slaves get here?

• Triangular Trade• Middle Passage