Learning stations southern colonies

8/20/12 The Southern Colonies [ushistory.org]

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Map of DeSoto's 1539-43exploration through theSoutheast

The Southern colonies included Maryland,Virginia, North and South Carolina, andGeorgia.

5. The Southern Colonies

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5. The Southern ColoniesVirginia was the first successful southerncolony. While Puritan zeal was fueling NewEngland's mercantile development, and Penn'sQuaker experiment was turning the middlecolonies into America's bread basket, the Southwas turning to cash crops. Geography andmotive rendered the development of thesecolonies distinct from those that lay to theNorth.

Immediately to Virginia's north was MARYLAND.Begun as a Catholic experiment, the colony'seconomy would soon come to mirror that of

Virginia, as tobacco became the most important crop. To the south lay theCarolinas, created after the English Civil War had been concluded. In the DeepSouth was GEORGIA, the last of the original thirteen colonies. Challenges fromSpain and France led the king to desire a buffer zone between the cash crops ofthe Carolinas and foreign enemies. Georgia, a colony of debtors, would fulfillthat need.

English American Southernerswould not enjoy the generally goodhealth of their New Englandcounterparts. Outbreaks of malariaand YELLOW FEVER kept lifeexpectancies lower. Since thenorthern colonies attractedreligious dissenters, they tended tomigrate in families. Such familyconnections were less prevalent inthe South.

The economy of growing CASHCROPS would require a labor forcethat would be unknown north ofMaryland. Slaves and indenturedservants, although present in theNorth, were much more importantto the South. They were thebackbone of the Southerneconomy.

Settlers in the Southern colonies came to America to seek economic prosperitythey could not find in Old England. The English countryside provided a grandexistence of stately manors and high living. But rural England was full, and bylaw those great estates could only be passed on to the eldest son. Americaprovided more space to realize a lifestyle the new arrivals could never dream toachieve in their native land.

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MonticelloFollow ThomasJefferson through aday. You will gain asense of theextraordinary range ofhis talents, his insatiablethirst for knowledge, hiswatchful use of time,and the largercommunity that livedand worked atMonticello.

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8/20/12 Maryland — The Catholic Experiment [ushistory.org]

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James Barry, 1793

In this engraving, Cecil Calvertpresents his 1649 Act ConcerningReligion to the ancient Spartanlawgiver, Lycurgus, whilelibertarians throughout history,including Ben Franklin and WilliamPenn, look on.

a. Maryland — The Catholic Experiment


5a. Maryland — The Catholic ExperimentNew England was not the only destinationsought by those fleeing religiouspersecution. In 1632, CECELIUS CALVERT,known as LORD BALTIMORE, was grantedpossession of all land lying between thePOTOMAC RIVER and the CHESAPEAKE BAY.Lord Baltimore saw this as an opportunityto grant religious freedom to the Catholicswho remained in Anglican England.Although outright violence was more a partof the 1500s than the 1600s, Catholicswere still a persecuted minority in theseventeenth century. For example,Catholics were not even permitted to belegally married by a Catholic priest.Baltimore thought that his New Worldpossession could serve as a refuge. At thesame time, he hoped to turn a financialprofit from the venture.

Maryland, named after England's Catholicqueen HENRIETTA MARIA, was first settledin 1634. Unlike the religious experiments

to the North, economic opportunity was the draw for many Maryland colonists.Consequently, most immigrants did not cross the Atlantic in family units but asindividuals. The first inhabitants were a mixture of country gentlemen (mostlyCatholic) and workers and artisans (mostly Protestant). This mixture wouldsurely doom the Catholic experiment. Invariably, there are more poor thanaristocrats in any given society, and the Catholics soon found themselves inthe minority.

The geography of Maryland, like that of her Southern neighbor Virigina, wasconducive to growing tobacco. The desire to make profits from tobacco soon ledto the need for low-cost labor. As a result, the number of indentured servantsgreatly expanded and the social structure of Maryland reflected this change.But the influx in immigration was not reflected in larger population growthbecause, faced with frequent battles with malaria and typhoid, life expectancyin Maryland was about 10 years less than in New England.

Fearful that the Protestant masses might restrict Catholic liberties, the HOUSEOF DELEGATES passed the MARYLAND ACT OF TOLERATION in 1649. This actgranted religious freedom to all Christians. Like Roger Williams in Rhode Islandand William Penn in Pennsylvania, Maryland thus experimented with lawsprotecting religious liberty. Unfortunately, Protestants swept the Catholics outof the legislature within a decade, and religious strife ensued. Still, the Act ofToleration is an important part of the colonial legacy of religious freedom thatwill culminate in the First Amendment in the American Bill of Rights.

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Historic Saint Mary's

City

Visit Maryland's first

capital: Historic St.

Mary's City is an

exciting mix of colorful

living history and

fascinating archaeology,

all set in a beautiful

Tidewater landscape.

Lord Baltimore's 17th

century capital stands

ready to be

rediscovered. Exhibits

at the outdoor museum

include the square-

rigged ship, the

Maryland Dove, Godiah

Spray's fine tobacco

plantation, the

reconstructed State

House of 1676, a

Woodland Indian hamlet,

and much more. With

miles of walking trails

and scenic river views,

Historic St. Mary's City

is indeed a special place

where "Time & Tide

Meet."

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Maryland Toleration

Act

The Toleration Act was

a fairly progressive

document written in

1649 allowing a broad

latitude in religious

toleration, particularly as

it applied to Catholics.

Read the text of the

Doctrine at this site.

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Maryland's House of

Delegates

From the Maryland

State Archives, read

about the early years of

Maryland's Lower

House of Delegates and

its struggles with the

Upper House whose

members were

appointed by Lord

Baltimore.

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Early Immigration to

Maryland in the

Colonial Era

Lord Baltimore hoped

that the colony he

settled would be called

Crescentia, but the king

wanted to name the new

colony after his wife and

the colony was

christened Maryland.

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8/20/12 Indentured Servants [ushistory.org]

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William Hogarth, 1747

This picture, Industry and Idleness, shows2 apprentices starting in identicalcircumstances, one is the industriousFrancis Goodchild and the other is theunsuccessful Thomas Idlefrom.

b. Indentured Servants


5b. Indentured ServantsThe growth of tobacco, rice, andindigo and the plantation economycreated a tremendous need forlabor in Southern English America.Without the aid of modernmachinery, human sweat andblood was necessary for theplanting, cultivation, andharvesting of these cash crops.While slaves existed in the Englishcolonies throughout the 1600s,indentured servitude was themethod of choice employed bymany planters before the 1680s.This system provided incentives forboth the master and servant toincrease the working population of the Chesapeake colonies.

Virginia and Maryland operated under what was known as the "HEADRIGHTSYSTEM." The leaders of each colony knew that labor was essential foreconomic survival, so they provided incentives for planters to import workers.For each laborer brought across the Atlantic, the master was rewarded with 50acres of land. This system was used by wealthy plantation aristocrats toincrease their land holdings dramatically. In addition, of course, they receivedthe services of the workers for the duration of the indenture.

This system seemed to benefit the servant as well. Each INDENTURED SERVANTwould have their fare across the Atlantic paid in full by their master. A contractwas written that stipulated the length of service — typically five years. Theservant would be supplied room and board while working in the master's fields.Upon completion of the contract, the servant would receive "freedom dues," apre-arranged termination bonus. This might include land, money, a gun,clothes or food. On the surface it seemed like a terrific way for the lucklessEnglish poor to make their way to prosperity in a new land. Beneath thesurface, this was not often the case.

Only about 40 percent of indentured servants lived to complete the terms oftheir contracts. Female servants were often the subject of harassment fromtheir masters. A woman who became pregnant while a servant often had yearstacked on to the end of her service time. Early in the century, some servantswere able to gain their own land as free men. But by 1660, much of the bestland was claimed by the large land owners. The former servants were pushedwestward, where the mountainous land was less arable and the threat fromIndians constant. A class of angry, impoverished pioneer farmers began toemerge as the 1600s grew old. After BACON'S REBELLION in 1676, plantersbegan to prefer permanent African slavery to the headright system that hadpreviously enabled them to prosper.

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Observations on the

slaves and the

indented servants,

inlisted in the army,

and in the navy of the

United States

A reprint of an articlewhich appeared inPhiladelphia in 1777.The author cannotunderstand why twogroups of people whowere enslaved byAmericans —indentured servants andslaves — would enlist toserve in the Americanarmy and navy.

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Apprentices of

Indentures;; Delaware

County, New York

It's hard to believe, butthe practice ofindentured servitude inAmerican did not end inthe United States untilthe early 1900s. Thissite lists the contractterms between Mastersand Servants in oneNew York County.

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Differential

Tolerances and

Accepted

Punishments for

Indentured Servants

A page as serious as itstitle. Written by astudent at LafayetteCollege, the siteexplores whathappened when crimeswere committed byeither owners ofservants or theservants themselves.For you AP types thatcome here, you'll getsome real insight intothe lives of indenturedservants, and moreparticularly the "differentpunishments ofservants and theirmasters in colonialcourts by examiningvarious court casesfrom 18th-centuryPennsylvania andMaryland courts." Nopictures but plenty ofstatistical data. This iswhat awaits any of youfolks thinking ofmajoring in history.

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8/20/12 Creating the Carolinas [ushistory.org]

1/2www.ushistory.org/us/5c.asp

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Charles II returned to theBritish throne in 1660, afterthe brutal dictatorship ofCromwell. It was under hisrule that the Carolinas werefounded.

c. Creating the Carolinas


5c. Creating the CarolinasWhile wayward English migrants worked to buildthe new American colonies, mother Englandexperienced the greatest turmoil in her historyin the middle of the 1600s. The Stuart King,Charles I, was beheaded as the result of a civilwar in 1649. A dictatorship led by OLIVERCROMWELL ruled England until 1660. Thisrepresented the only break in the hereditaryline dating from 1066 until the present day.Cromwell was a brutal leader, so the return ofthe English monarchy was well received by thepublic.

This disruption caused a temporary distractionfrom colonizing the New World. When Charles IIassumed the throne, it was business as usual.The colonies that were created under his rulewere known as RESTORATION COLONIES. It was

in this environment that the Carolinas were created.

The southern part of Carolina served first as support for the British West Indies.Soon the slave economy of the sugar islands reached the shores of Carolina.The cultivation of rice in the plantation system quickly became profitable, andplanters in the hundreds and slaves in the tens of thousands soon inhabitedCarolina. At the heart of the colony was the merchant port of Charles Town,later to be known as CHARLESTON. African slaves became a majority of thepopulation before the middle of the eighteenth century. South Carolina evenexperimented with Indian slavery, enslaving those captured in the aftermath ofbattle.

Such was not the case for the northern reaches of the Carolina colony. Theearliest inhabitants of this region were displaced former indentured servantsfrom the Chesapeake. Most established small tobacco farms. Slavery existedhere, but in far smaller numbers than in the neighboring regions. Theinhabitants felt as though the aristocrats from Virginia and the Charles Townarea looked down their noses on them. Northern Carolina, like Rhode Island inthe North, drew the region's discontented masses.

As the two locales evolved separately and as their differing geographies andinhabitants steered contrasting courses, calls for a formal split emerged. In1712, NORTH CAROLINA and SOUTH CAROLINA became distinct colonies. Eachprospered in its own right after this peaceful divorce took effect.

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Brief History of South

Carolina

A very brief history ofthe state, brought to youby the state. Use only inthe case of anemergency. Not muchhere.

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The Lords Proprietors

of Carolina

Carolina's royal charterwas granted by CharlesII to 8 of his generalswho had supported himagainst Cromwell. Thisoverview webpage fromthe Charleston CountyLibrary offers inline linksto brief biographies ofthe Lord Proprietors.Illustrated.

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Charter of Carolina —

March 24, 1663

In the beginning was acharter. The CarolinaCharter was granted toEdward Earl ofClarendon, GeorgeDuke of Albemarle,William Lord Craven,John Lord Berkley,Anthony Lord Ashley,Sir George Carteret, SirWilliam Berkley, and SirJohn Colleton, and theirheirs, by Charles II.They were granteddomain over " thefishing of all sorts offish, whales, sturgeonsand all other royal fishesin the sea, bays, isletsand rivers within thepremises, and the fishtherein taken;; andmoreover all veins,mines, quarries, as welldiscovered as notdiscovered, of gold,silver, gems, preciousstones, and all otherwhatsoever, be it ofstones, metals..." Not abad deal at all.

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Historical Highlights

of North Carolina

From the state library ofNorth Carolina, a veryuseful history of ColonialNorth Carolina coveringthe years 1663-1729.No pictures, just lots ofgood hard facts.

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8/20/12 Debtors in Georgia [ushistory.org]

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The city of Savannah, once a part ofOglethorpe's utopian design, makes itsbeginnings in 1734.

d. Debtors in Georgia


5d. Debtors in GeorgiaThe development of Georgia wasunlike all the other British colonies.First of all, it was the last to becreated. Georgia was founded in1733, 126 years after Jamestownwas successfully planted. Englandand Europe as a whole were in themidst of an intellectual revolutionknown as the ENLIGHTENMENT.Enlightened thinkers championedthe causes of liberty and progress.Many believed in the innategoodness of human beings. Theyasserted that even the worstelements of society might prosper if given the right set of circumstances.

JAMES OGLETHORPE was such a thinker. He and a group of charitable investorsasked KING GEORGE for permission to create a utopian experiment for Englishcitizens imprisoned for debt. England's prison population could be decreased,and thousands of individuals could be given a new chance at life. With theselofty goals, Georgia was created.

King George was not terribly concerned with the plight of the English debtor.His advisers pointed out that such a colony in Georgia might provide defensefor the South Carolina rice plantations from Spanish Florida. He gave his assentto a charter and Oglethorpe acted.

"...And this would turn out very well indeed in that

it would encourage very many good families of

average means to go to settle there as well as some

very good workmen as carpenters, masons, tile

makers, blacksmiths, farriers, locksmiths,

wheelwrights, coopers, vine growers, shepherds,

laborers, and others who would be most useful

there. Instead of this, the greatest part of those

who have already gone there are nothing but

miserable ones both as to their manners and as to

their fortunes..."

– James Edward Oglethorpe, Original Papers, Feb.

11, 1737

Here, the settlers would have to conform to Oglethorpe's plan, in which therewas no elected assembly. Three major laws governed the colony. The first dealtwith the distribution of land. The second and third reflected Enlightened ideals.

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Charter of Georgia:1732The rice- and tobacco-selling colonists of theCarolinas came underattack from the Indiansand Spanish to thesouth. The Britishsolution? Export a wholebunch of debtors tosettle a buffer zone andcall it Georgia! Read allabout it and much morein Georgia's charter.

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Images of OglethorpeHere's a great site forresearch. Not only willyou find dozens ofpictures of JamesOglethorpe and relatedto the settlement ofGeorgia, there are alsoan essay on thecolony's founder and atimeline of events. Allfrom Armstrong AtlanticState University.

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James OglethorpeTercentenary HomePageA comprehensive sitefrom the University ofGeorgia celebrating thetercentenary of JamesOglethorpe's birth. Thiscelebration was officiallydecreed by the GeorgiaState Legislature. Thepage is broken downinto several chaptersincluding "English rootsof James Oglethorpe"and "Visit to Savannah"which was a city settledby Oglethorpe. Lots ofpictures to be foundthroughout the site too!

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Oglethorpe and theGeorgia IndiansThe gallery on thiswebsite contains 48images related to nativeAmericans in Georgiafrom the contact periodup to the early 1900s.But don't miss theessay on Oglethorperelations with the nativeAmericans, with specialreference toTomochichi, a Creekleader.

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8/20/12 Life in the Plantation South [ushistory.org]

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Slave Cabin at SotterleyPlantation, Maryland, is one of theonly remaining freely accessibleexamples of its kind in the state.

e. Life in the Plantation South


5e. Life in the Plantation SouthPLANTATION life created a society with clearclass divisions. A lucky few were at the top,with land holdings as far as the eyes couldsee. Most Southerners did not experiencethis degree of wealth. The contrastbetween rich and poor was greater in theSouth than in the other English colonies,because of the labor system necessary forits survival. Most Southerners wereYEOMAN farmers, indentured servants, orslaves. The plantation system also createdchanges for women and family structuresas well.

The TIDEWATER ARISTOCRATS were the fortunate few who lived in statelyplantation manors with hundreds of servants and slaves at their beck and call.Most plantation owners took an active part in the operations of the business.Surely they found time for leisurely activities like hunting, but on a daily basisthey worked as well. The distance from one plantation to the next proved to beisolating, with consequences even for the richest class. Unlike New England,who required public schooling by law, the difficulties of travel and the distancesbetween prospective students impeded the growth of such schools in theSouth. Private tutors were hired by the wealthiest families. The boys studied inthe fall and winter to allow time for work in the fields during the planting times.The girls studied in the summer to allow time for weaving during the coldermonths. Few cities developed in the South. Consequently, there was little roomfor a merchant middle class. URBAN PROFESSIONALS such as lawyers were rarein the South. Artisans often worked right on the plantation as slaves orservants.

The roles of women were dramatically changed by the plantation society. Firstof all, since most indentured servants were male, there were far fewer womenin the colonial South. In the Chesapeake during the 1600s, men entered thecolony at a rate of seven to one. From one perspective, this increased women'spower. They were highly sought after by the overwhelming number of eagermen. The high death rate in the region resulted in a typical marriage beingdissolved by death within seven years. Consequently there was a good deal ofremarriage, and a complex web of half-brothers and half-sisters evolved.Women needed to administer the property in the absence of the male.Consequently many developed managerial skills. However, being a minority hadits downside. Like in New England, women were completely excluded from thepolitical process. Female slaves and indentured servants were often the victimsof aggressive male masters.

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A Day in the Life of

Thomas Jefferson's

Monticello

From the folks atMonticello a fascinatingslice of plantation life.Thomas Jefferson wasa very reluctantpolitician and couldn'twait to retire to hisplantation. But with allthe work to be done, it'sa wonder he didn't wantto stay in the WhiteHouse. Start at sunriseand spend a day withfarmer Jefferson.

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Gunston Hall

Gunston Hall was hometo influential VirginianGeorge Mason whowas a big influence onJefferson. These folkssay they're ready tohelp you with youschool project. I quote."Working on a schoolproject? Writing apaper? Or maybe youare simply interested inmore information aboutGeorge Mason orGunston Hall. Pleasecall, write, or e-mail usto discuss your needs.We carry books aboutGeorge Mason andGunston Hall, copies ofthe Virginia Declarationof Rights, postcards,and much more. Let ushelp you with yourproject!" They have acomprehensivebibliography of sourceson George Mason,Gunston Hall, and other18th-century topics.

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Historic St. Mary's

City — 1634-1695

Historic St. Mary's Cityhas a working farm aspart of the museum'sattractions. The Sprayfamily's recreated1660s tobaccoplantation, tucked awayon the banks of St.Andrew's Creek,contains the mainhouse, tenant house,and tobacco houses(barns), as well as thecrops, gardens,orchards, livestock, andfencing that asuccessful planterwould have owned. TheSpray family and theirindentured servantsinterpret the everydaylife of early Tidewater


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Learning stations southern colonies