The Southern Colonies

Chapter 3, Section 4

The Southern Colonies

• The colonies of Georgia, Maryland and Carolina were Proprietary colonies.

• A proprietary colony is a colony which is owned by an individual as private property.

How the Proprietors Made Money

• Many people wanted to own their own land, but few could afford it.

• The headright system helped wealthier people.

How the Proprietors Made Money

• A "quit-rent" is where you own the land as long as you pay rent on it.

• The quit-rent system enabled poorer people to own land.

How the Proprietors Made Money

• While the amount paid in quit-rent was small, it added up for the proprietor.

The Maryland Colony

• George Calvert founded Maryland as a place for Catholics to go.

• Remember - Catholics were not very popular in England.

The Maryland Colony

• In 1632, a group of 200 Catholics and 2 priests came and founded Maryland near Virginia. They had a pretty easy time since Jamestown could help out, and they came prepared.

The Maryland Colony

• The problem was, more Puritans would end up coming to Maryland than Catholics.

• This caused religious tension in the colony.

The Maryland Colony

• So, Cecilius Calvert (aka Lord Baltimore), being the proprietor, made the Act of Toleration, which said everyone in Maryland was free to worship as they chose.

An advertisement from the Glasgow Journal, 1 September 1763, for a blacksmith to go to the British colony of Maryland on the east coast of America.

Back in England…

• Remember Charles II repaid his supporters by making them Proprietors in the area South of Virginia.

King Charles II, 1685 byGodfrey Kneller (1646 - 1723)

The Carolinas

• South Carolina found success in growing indigo, a type of plant which made an excellent purple dye.

• North Carolina was much poorer, and they made most of their money growing tobacco.

Georgia

• This happened much later than the other Colonies, in the 1730's.

• King George II gave James Oglethorpe a charter to start the colony.

• Georgia would serve two purposes.

Georgia

• First, Georgia was an experiment in social reform, they sent debtors and petty criminals there to start a new life.

• Colonists were not allowed to drink or gamble, etc.

Georgia

• But, they did not mend their ways. The colony succeeded by growing rice and indigo, but the social experiment failed.

• Slavery and the plantation system took over the economy.

Georgia

• Georgia also served as a buffer between Spanish Florida and the rest of the English colonies to prevent Spanish expansion.