The English Colonies
1605-1774
The Southern Colonies
Founding a New Colony
Founding a New Colony
• Jamestown founded May 14, 1607• 40 miles up James River in Virginia• Lack of preparation• Surrounded by marshes• Disease carrying mosquitos
Jamestown
• 105 colonists • 2/3 died by winter• Lack of preparation• Disease carrying mosquitos
John Smith
The Real John Smith
John Smith’s Impact
• John Smith• Took Control of Jamestown 1608• Colonists rewarded for harder work• Powhatan Confederacy of Native Americans
John Rolfe
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John Rolfe’s Impact
• John Rolfe made Jamestown profitable• Introduced new type of tobacco• Sold well in England
Powhatan Confederacy
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Powhatan Confederacy
• John Rolfe married Pocahontas in 1614• Strengthened relations with Powhatan
Powhatan Confederacy
War in Virginia
• In 1622, colonists killed Powhatan leader• Powhatan retaliated later that year• Fighting continued for 20 more years
Headright System
• Colonists paid passage to Virginia• Received 50 acres of land• 50 additional acres for every new person
brought.• Richer colonists + relatives (servants) = large
amounts of land
Indentured Servants
• High death rates in Virginia• Majority of workers indentured servants• Contracted to work 4-7 years for person who
paid passage
Expansion of Slavery
Expansion of Slavery
• First Africans brought in 1619 by Dutch• Demand for workers soon outpaced supply of
indentured servants• Cost of slaves fell• By mid-1600s most Africans in Virginia were
kept as slaves
Jamestown Grows
• Economy of Jamestown grew• Colonial officials asked for more taxes• Poor colonists began to protest
Nathaniel Bacon
Nathaniel Bacon
• Opposed to trade with American Indians• Attacked friendly tribe in 1676
Bacon’s Rebellion
Bacon’s Rebellion
• Bacon attacked and burned Jamestown• Controlled much of the colony
• …But died shortly after of dysentery
Other Southern Colonies
• Church of England v. Roman Catholic Church• English Catholics were not allowed to worship
freely• English leaders feared English Catholics would
join other Catholic nations like France and Spain
Maryland
Fightin’ Turtles
…Technically it’s a terrapin
Maryland
• Proposed by Lord George Calvert as a haven for Catholics in America in 1620
• Charter awarded in 1632 to Cecilius Calvert
• Colony established in 1634 and named in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria
Maryland
• By the 1640s, Protestants began moving into the colony
• Religious conflicts arose• Cecilius Calvert (a.k.a Lord Baltimore) proposed
the Toleration Act of 1649• Made it a crime to restrict the rights of all
Christians• First law supporting religious tolerance in the
colonies
North Carolina
• Settlers of North Carolina came primarily from Virginia
North Carolina
• Split from South Carolina in 1712• Economy relied heavily on tobacco production
South Carolina
• Settlers of South Carolina came primarily from Europe
South Carolina
• Like Virginia, those who paid their passage from Europe received large land grants
• By 1730, some 20,000 slaves lived in South Carolina, compared to 10,000 white settlers
Remember this fact for later
Georgia
• Charter granted to James Oglethorpe in 1732• Intended as a buffer between Spanish Florida and the rest of the colonies• Oglethorpe wanted a place where debtors could make a fresh start
What a nice guy…
Georgia
• In 1733 Oglethorpe founded Savannah• Did not want large plantations owned by a few• Outlawed slavery to accomplish this• But less than 20 years later….
• New laws were passed and Georgia was soon filled with large rice plantations worked by thousands of slaves
Economies of Southern Colonies
• Depended on agriculture• Many small farms and some large plantations• Warm climate and long growing season• Cash crops • By 1700s, slaves replaced indentured servants as main source of labor
Slave Codes
• Slave Codes - Laws to control slavesVirginia, 1705 – "If any slave resists his master...and in correcting such a slave, shall happen to be killed in such correction...the master shall be free of all punishment...as if such accident never happened."
Alabama, 1833 - "Any person or persons who attempt to teach any free person of color, or slave, to spell, read, or write, shall, upon conviction thereof by indictment, be fined in a sum not less than two hundred and fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars."
South Carolina, 1712 - Any slave who evades capture for 20 days or more is to be publicly whipped for the first offense; branded with the letter R on the right cheek for the second offense; and lose one ear for the third offense; and castrated for the fourth offense.
“Tortures, murder, and every other imaginable barbarity…are practiced upon the poor slaves with impunity. I hope the slave-trade will be
abolished.”– Olaudah Equinao
The Big Idea
• Despite a difficult beginning, the Southern Colonies soon flourished
Main Ideas
• Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in America
Main Ideas
• Daily life in Virginia was challenging to the colonists
Main Ideas
• Religious freedom and economic opportunities were motives for founding other southern colonies
Main Ideas
• Farming and slavery were important to the economies of the southern colonies
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