Southern Colonies

(1585) 1st Colony: Roanoke Colony in North Carolina

  • Expedition to Roanoke Island led by Sir Walter Raleigh

  • After they realize they need more supplied Governor John White goes back to England

  • 3 years later he returns and no one is around.  Only think left is “Croatoan” carved on a tree.


(1607) 1st PERMANENT Colony: Jamestown in Virginia

Why is Jamestown permanent?

  • A Dutch ship called the “White Lion” is the 1st slave ship & increases supply of labor

  • A large ship of single women comes to Jamestown. This means marriages, children, and therefore a commitment to community + hope for a better future

  • A government called the House of Burgesses is created. It’s a semi-congress with only land owning white men.

Economy: Tobacco because of John Smith

Virginia Company given a chapter by King James I


Indentured Servitude: At first it was popular and it worked in Jamestown but then they realized indentured servants would be left with little money, be 2nd class citizens, and wouldn’t have a good life.

  • They were also forced to move west because they couldn’t afford land, but in the west the soil was rocky and not suitable for farming tobacco. they can’t make money

  • because of this Americans began relying on slavery in the 1600s and the population increased

  • In the Caribbean they farmed sugar cane which required a lot of labor. Soon there were more slaves than free men so they had to be very strict (Barbados Slave Code 1661) because they feared an uprising.


Important:

Captain John Smith - Saves Jamestown from lazy aristocrats, makes them work to eat. 

Governor Lord De La Warr - Colonists are having a hard time in Jamestown and plan to leave. Lord De La Warr shows up and orders them to go back to Jamestown, rules over them strictly, and sedates Natives.


Chapter 2 Terms

Pocahontas - Saved John Smith when he was captured by Native Americans and later married John Rolfe and became an intermediary between the Indians and the settlers.

1610 1st Anglo-Powhatan War - The Virginia Company declared war against the Indians in the Jamestown region in 1610. De La Warr used “Irish tactics” against the Indians. Soon after, a peace settlement created through the marriage of Pocahontas to colonist John Rolfe ended the First Anglo-Powhatan War in 1614.

1644 2nd Anglo-Powhatan War - In 1644 Indians tried to dislodge the Virginians one more time. However they were defeated, and the peace treaty of 1646 banished the Chesapeake Indians from their ancestral lands. In 1669, only 10% of the original population remained and in 1685 the Chesapeake Indians were extinct. They fell victim to the 3 D’S: disease, disorganization, disposability.

Important events:

Bacon’s Rebellion


(1632) Maryland

  • It’s important for people to live near water so they move up the Chesapeake to  form Maryland as the population grew

  • Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore

  • Catholics were heavily persecuted in England so they moved to Maryland as a safe haven. They rely on Tobacco as well.

  • But as the population grew they aren’t the majority anymore so they create the Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 which Guaranteed toleration to those that believed in Jesus Christ (Christians) but declared death to those who denied Jesus (Jews, atheists)


(1670) North/South Carolinas

Founded when the king gave 8 of his favorite court people (Lord Propriters) land to form Carolina

Because Virginia had an aristocratic attitude, people began moving down to North Carolina & people from Rich Spanish florida moved up into South Carolina

  • North Carolina depended on tobacco (they were laid back, democratic)

  • South Carolina economy depended on rice & indigo which is new (they were aristocratic)

  • they formed Plantations: an estate on which cash crops (a crop your growing primarily to sell/trade_ are cultivated by resident labor


Important:

Iroquois Confederacy: When the Tuscarora were defeated by the North Carolinians, they joined the Iroquois up North and became the 6th Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. This confederacy was a group of Indian tribes who joined together. They were defeated and dispersed by South Carolina 4 years later.


(1732) Georgia Last of the 13 colonies

Established by Gen. James Oglethrope

  • It was a buffer zone between Spanish Florida and the Colonies

  • Its a “Debtors’ colony” because debtors (people who owe debt) from England would be given the chance for a new life in the colonies

    • Benefits: debtors were in jail so it was basically impossible to pay debts, going to the colonies would give them the chance to do this

  • There were strict rules applies to the Georgia settlement

    • Small farms

    • Slavery is banned

    • Alcohol is prohibited

  • But by 1740 more autonomy was given to the colonists because Georgia could also be profitable.

  • Economy depended on Indigo


Life in Chesapeake

  • There was a high mortality rate and kids likely had 1 parent

  • Lots of Mosquitoes giving Illnesses

  • There was Brackish water making it hard to get fresh water

  • Marriages lasted an average of 7 years because a partner would die

  • There was a problem with a skewered gender balance because the mortality rate was high and there weren’t enough kids

  • The headright system gave a grant of land to settlers and was effective in increasing the population in the Colonies

  • Southern cash crops: Tobacco was reliable to make money but the weather was not and having an abundance of tobacco relied on good weather