6.3 The Southern Colonies pp. 163-167

Objectives: Describe the economy of the Southern Colonies. Summarize what life was like on a plantation.

Review: 1. What factors made farming difficult in the New England Colonies? 2. Define subsistence farming— 3. List three ways colonists in New England made a living. 4. Define export— 5. Define import— 6. What were some products traded along the triangular trade routes? 7. Why did Puritans believe it was important to be able to read? 8. Define dame school— 9. What was a hornbook? 10. What did the Massachusetts School Law (1647) require? 11. What was the name of the first college in the colonies? 12. What did New Englanders call the open field around which they built their towns and villages? 13. What were two functions of the New England meetinghouse? 14. Which Massachusetts village experienced a series of witch trials and executions in 1692?

Review: 15. What advantages did farmers in the Middle Colonies enjoy? 16. Define cash crops— 17. What were the Middle Colonies known as and why? 18. Define Conestoga wagon— 19. What were the two largest cities in the colonies by the mid-1700s? 20. In terms of national origin, how were the settlers in the Middle Colonies unlike those in New England? 21. Define apprentice— 22. Define frontier—

A. An Agricultural Economy (pp. 163-164) City, or urban, life was important in the Middle Colonies, but the South was mainly rural—mostly farms. A few wealthy planters—members of the upper class—owned thousands of acres, while farmers—the lower class—owned small farms or worked for a large planter. Southern farmers grew three cash crops—tobacco, rice, and indigo.

B. Growing Tobacco (p. 164) Tobacco was the first crop grown in Virginia to bring farmers a profit. Large tobacco plantations covered an area along the Chesapeake Bay that included the Potomac, James, and York Rivers. This region came to be called the Tidewater, because ocean tides affected the rivers for miles upstream.

C. Rice and Indigo (p. 164) Rice was well suited to the swampy coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. Indigo grew well in the Southern highlands where rice would not. Growing tobacco, rice, and indigo required many laborers and led to the growth of African slavery.

D. The African Population (pp. 164-165) Enslaved Africans were shipped directly from West Africa to the American colonies. People were chained and packed together in dark, filthy, cramped compartments. Many died from ill treatment and lack of fresh food and water along the Middle Passage, the route between Africa and America.

Middle Passage

E. Colonial Slavery (pp. 165-166) Many colonists did not think that slavery was wrong and regarded the need for labor as more important than the welfare of Africans. They passed slave codes, laws that denied slaves most of their rights. Rebellion and resistance by the enslaved occurred both in slave ships and on plantations.

F. The Southern Plantation (p. 166) Life on Southern plantations centered around the “big house,” or family mansion. Most plantation workers were field hands, enslaved men and women who planted and tended crops. These and other workers made the plantation self-sufficient, supplying almost all its needs.

Review: 23. Define urban— 24. Define rural— 25. Identify the one large city in the Southern Colonies. 26. Who made up the rich, upper class in the Southern Colonies? 27. Who made up the lower class in the Southern Colonies? 28. List three cash crops grown in the Southern Colonies. 29. Define Tidewater— 30. From which part of the world did most of the slaves in the Southern Colonies come? 31. Define Middle Passage— 32. Define slave codes—