1. The Southern Colonies

2. Roanoke Colony (NC) Sir Walter Raleigh
First attempt in 1585 failed, tried again in 1587.
When people arrived with supplies in 1590 the colony was gone.

3. Virginia
May 24, 1607  3 ships about 100 colonists [all men] land at Jamestown, along banks of James River
Easily defended, but swarming with disease-causing mosquitoes. (Dysentery / Typhoid Fever)
Named for Queen Elizabeth

4. Jamestown 1607 FOUNDED BY: Founded by The Virginia Company
Led by Capt. John Smith
Goal - Get rich quick - Settlers wasted time looking for gold instead of hunting or farming
Guaranteed the same rights as Englishmen.
Story of Pocahontas
John Smith taking the King of Pamunkey prisoner. Captain John Smith's General History of Virginia (1624

5. The “Starving Time
Inadequate Housing/Food/Disease Caused many deaths in the early years.
By 1626 – of over 8000 settlers had been sent only 1200 survived
1607: 104 colonists - By spring, 1608: 38 survived
1609: 300 more immigrants - By spring, 1610: 60 survived
1610 – 1624: 10,000 immigrants
1624 population: 1,200
70% of Virginians died before 50
Adult life expectancy: 40 years
Death of children before age 5: 80%
½ of all children lost one parent by age 13
¾ of all children lost both parents by age 21
Cannibalism article

6. Richard Frethorne’s Letter (1623)
Activity:
Describe the life of the indentured servant as presented in this letter.
What are some of the problems he and the other servants experienced?
What are their biggest fears?
What does a historian learn about life in the 17c Chesapeake colony?

7. What finally made the colony prosperous?
English Tobacco Label
Tobacco “Virginia’s gold and silver.” John Rolfe, 1612

8. Tobacco’s effect on Virginia’s economy:
Vital role in putting VA on a firm economic footing.
Ruinous to soil when continuously planted.
Chained VA’s economy to a single crop.
Promoted the Plantation System
Need for cheap, abundant labor
1618 — Virginia produces 20,000 pounds of tobacco — Virginia produces 60,000 pounds of tobacco — Virginia produces 500,000 pounds of tobacco — Virginia produces 1,500,000 pounds of tobacco.

9. Indentured Servitude Headright System:
Each Virginian got 50 acres for each person whose passage they paid.
Indenture Contract:
5-7 years.
Promised land or money
Forbidden to marry.
: only 1 in 10 outlived their indentured contracts!
Indentured Contract, 1746

10. Primary Sources
An advertisement from the newspaper Glasgow Courant, 4 September 1760, for indentured servants to go to Virginia.

11. River Settlement Pattern
Large plantations [>100 acres].
Widely spread apart [>5 miles].
Social/Economic PROBLEMS???
No sense of community
No cooperation
No common institutions
Vulnerable to Indian attack
Jamestown Colonization Pattern:

12. Frustrated Freemen
Late 1600s a large numbers of young, poor, discontented men in the Chesapeake area.
Little access to land or women for marriage.
In 1676 Nathaniel Bacon led a group of young settlers/indentured servants in a rebellion against the Governor
Burned the capital and caused chaos in colony before he died (disease) and it was put down.
Led for a movement away from Indentured servants to slavery.
Nathaniel Bacon
Berkeley monopolized the fur trade with the Indians in the area.
Berkley refused to retaliate for Indian attacks on frontier settlements.
Rebels attacked Indians, whether they were friendly or not to whites.
Governor Berkeley driven from Jamestown.
They burned the capital.
Rebels went on a rampage of plundering.
Bacon suddenly died of fever.
Berkeley brutally crushed the rebellion and hanged 20 rebels.

13. The Atlantic Slave Trade
Slavery in the New World
First Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619.
Their status was not clear - perhaps slaves, perhaps indentured servants.
Slavery not that important until the end of the 17c.
By the mid-1680s, black slaves outnumbered white indentured servants.
The Atlantic Slave Trade

14. Colonial Slavery
As the number of slaves increased, white colonists reacted to put down perceived racial threat.
Slavery transformed from economic to economic and racial institution.
Beginning in 1662 we see the first “Slave Codes”
Made blacks [and their children] property, or chattel for life of white masters.
In some colonies, it was a crime to teach a slave to read or write.

15. Powhatan Confederacy
Powhatan dominated a few dozen small tribes in the James River area when the English arrived.
The English at first called all Indians in the area Powhatans after Chief Powhatan.
At first - Powhatan probably saw the English as allies in his struggles to control other Indian tribes in the region.
After time relations grew worse and resulted in several conflicts.
Powhattan Uprising 1622 put down.

16. Government in Virginia
The Virginia House of Burgesses was established in 1619 & began to assume some local control over finances, militia, etc. (met once a year).
1st Legislative body in the New World.
The upper house = governor and a panel of important colonists he appointed.
Lower house = a general assembly made up of 2 representatives of each settlement (Burgess) selected by eligible voters.
At first all free white males later white males with property (at least 50 acres)
By the end of the 17c, H of B was able to initiate legislation.
Established the expectation that colonists had a say in government.

17. Maryland
A royal charter was granted to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, in 1632.
A healthier location than Jamestown.
Tobacco would also be the main crop.

18. A Haven for Catholics
Baltimore permitted high degree of freedom of worship in order to prevent repeat of persecution of Catholics by Protestants.
Maryland Toleration Act of 1649
Supported by the Catholics in MD.
Guaranteed toleration to all CHRISTIANS.
However, decreed death to those who denied the divinity of Jesus [like Jews, atheists, etc.].

19. The Carolinas 1670 Named for King Charles II (settled MUCH later)
Small farmers from Barbados squeezed out by sugar barons.
Brought a few black slaves and a model of the Barbados slave code with them adopted in 1696)
Goals
They hoped to use Carolina to supply their plantations in Barbados with food and export wine, silk, and olive oil to Europe.

20. Relations with Native Americans
Carolina Settlers used local Savannah Indians to enslave other Indians
1707 Savannah Indians decided to migrate to PA.
PA promised better relations with whites.
Carolinians decided to “thin” the Savannahs before they could leave and bloody raids killed most of them by 1710.

21. Economy of the Carolinas
Charlestown became the busiest port in the south.
Rice was the primary export.
Was grown in Africa, so planters imported slaves.
By 1710 black slaves were a majority in Carolina.
Indigo was grown to be used as a die.

22. Conflict in the Carolinas
Spanish Florida hated the mass of protestants on their borders and conducted border raids on Carolina.
Sometimes with help of local Native Americans.
The Northern area of Carolina was very different from the southern portion of the colony.
It was settled by poor farmers from Virginia and in the northern area officially separated themselves forming North Carolina.

23. Georgia, the Buffer Colony
Last Colony founded (1733) by James Oglethorpe (Named for George II)
Chief Purpose to be “buffer” between the valuable Carolinas & Spanish Florida & French Louisiana.
Received subsidies from British govt. to offset costs of defense.
Export silk and wine.
A haven for debtors thrown in to prison.
Determined to keep slavery out but Slavery is in GA by 1750.