Southern Colonies SS Flashcards
Test Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Southern Colonies
Maryland, Virgina, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia
Proprietary Colonies
Owned by people/colonies
Royal Colonies
Owned by the monarch/king or queen
Charter
A written grant/document giving permission to start a colony
Jamestown
The first permanent English colony in North America, began in 1607 along the James River in Virginia
John Smith
English colonist who helped save the Jamestown colony from starvation in 1608; Captain John Smith became the leader of Jamestown in 1608. He took control of the colony and built a fort. He forced the settlers to work harder and to build better houses and rewarded the hard workers with food. He provided strong leadership, and his motto was “no work – no food.”
Joint Stock
A business formed by a group of people who jointly make an investment and share in the profits and losses
Pocahontas
Daughter of the Powhatan who married colonist John Rolfe, helping temporarily bring peace between the Powhatan people and the colonists
John Rolfe
Jamestown colonist who married Pocahontas and made tobacco, a valuable cash crop.
John Rolfe arrived and discovered a sweet tobacco. Virginia finally began to make a profit from this cash crop. He married Pocahontas, daughter of the Powhatan Leader, in 1614. She died in England in 1617.
Plantation
A large farm that usually specialized in growing one kind of crop and depended on enslaved labor
Headright system
The Virginia company’s policy of granting 50 acers of land to settlers on the Jamestown colony
Indentured Servant
A colonist who received free passage to America in exchange for working without pay for 4-7 years
Bacons Rebelion
An attack led by Nathaniel Bacon against American Indians and a colonial government in Virginia in 1676;
Nathaniel Bacon led a group of indentured servants to attack American natives in 1676 and burned Jamestown. They protested high taxes.
Toleration Act of 1649
A Maryland Law that made restricting the religious rights of Christians a crime; the first law guaranteeing religious freedom to be passed in America
Olaudah Equiano
A slave who recorded his awful experiences as a slave in the narrative
Slave codes
Law passed in the colonies to control slaves
Dept
Money owed
Debtor
Person who owns money
The Settlement of Jamestown, VA
Investors from a growing middle class formed a joint-stock company called the Virgina Company of London
King James I issued the First Virginia Charter to the London Company that gave the company permission to settle in a region called Virginia. It would be a proprietary colony, owned by the company. Most hoped to find gold and get rich.
In April 1607 the first 105 colonists sailed on the Godspeed, Discovery, and Susan B.
Constant and landed 40 miles up the James River in Virginia and founded Jamestown.
Very poor beginnings: most were adventurers with no experienced workers to farm or build, shortage of food, swampy location with mosquitoes, salty water, harsh winters. Powhatan Confederacy at first helped the settlers by showing them how to grow maize; however, conflict between them caused problems for many years.
By 1609 some 400 more settlers arrived in Jamestown. The Powhatan started to view the settlers as invaders. In the winter of 1609-1610 the Powhatan surrounded the Jamestown Fort and killed anyone who tried to reach supplies outside. It became known as the “Starving Time.”
Because the London Co. could not protect the colonists from the Powhatan, the king revoked/took back their charter. He made Virginia a royal colony, which then belonged to the British Empire.
What was the first representative government in the English colonies?
The house of burgesses
When did the first group of women arrive in VA?
1619
Daily Life in Virgina
long with many small farms, some people lived on large farms called plantations.
Tobacco was so valuable that it was used as money.
Headright System - Colonists who paid their way to VA received 50 acres of land and 50 acres for each person they brought.
Labor-In 1619 slaves from Africa were brought to Jamestown, VA; Increased work and the falling cost of slaves led colonists to use more slave labor.
Maryland
It was intended to be a refuge/safe place for English Catholics to escape religious persecution in England, and in 1634 200 English Catholics arrived. They spent time
raising corn, cattle, and hogs; they also planted tobacco.
After a growing number of Protestants began arriving, Lord Baltimore passed the Toleration Act of 1649 to reduce tensions between Catholics and Protestants. It was the first law to support freedom of religion in the colonies.
What year was Maryland discovered? Where is it located?
1632; Located North of Virginia in the Chesapeake Bay
Lord Baltomore
(a/k/a Cecelius Calvert) received a charter to start the colony he named Maryland in honor of England’s queen Henrietta Maria.
The Carolinas
Founded by 8 proprietors who received a charter from King Charles (Charles is the male form of Carolina/Caroline).
Divided land into North and South Carolina in 1712.
By 1730 South Carolina had more slaves than white colonists (20,000 slaves to 10,000 colonists).
Main crop – rice; Charleston (Charles Town - Town of Charles)
Made royal colonies in 1729.
Georgia
James Oglethorpe received a charter from King George II.
Oglethorpe wanted to make GA a home for English debtors, outlaw slavery, and break up large plantations to make small farms.
Settlers grew unhappy, and GA became a royal colony. Large plantations were worked by slaves (Savannah – main coastal city)
Economics of the southern colonies
Economies of the South depended on agriculture in the form of many small farms and some large plantations.
Cash crops, crops grown for profit, were grown in the warm climate and long growing season.
Main cash crops were tobacco, rice, and indigo, a plant from which blue dye is extracted.
These crops required a huge labor force, and slaves from Africa were used.
Most of the colonies passed slave codes, laws to control slaves. Colonies with the largest number of slaves had the strictest slave codes. South Carolina said slaves could not hold meetings or own weapons.
