Powhatanattacked
Jamestown
1609Opechancanough
attackedJamestown
16221619
Africanslaves firstarrived inVirginia
Pequot War
1637 1644
Massacre ofVirginiasettlers
Massachusettsrequired towns
to have aschool
1647
Bacon’sRebellion
1667
King Philip’s War
1675–1677 1681
PennsylvaniaColony
founded
1692
Salemwitch trials
1715
YamaseeBorder War
Tuscaroradefeated in
NorthCarolina
1712
GreatAwakening
began
1740
6968
Many plantationswere locatedalong rivers.
1L E S S O N
Thinking on Your OwnRead the Focus Your Reading questions. As you read, writeanswers in your notebook.
By 1630, the future of theVirginia Colony lookedbright. It had survived theearly years when three out offour colonists died of disease,starvation, or NativeAmerican attacks. The colonyhad a cash crop that provideda steady income. John Rolfelearned how to grow and curea mild variety of West Indiantobacco. It sold very well inLondon. A single crop, it wassaid, could pay for a Virginia plantation.
SouthernPlantations
Englishmen with money toinvest went to Virginia orMaryland in large numbers.Later, many people went toNorth Carolina and Georgia.They laid out plantations, orlarge farms, along the rivers.Tobacco planters needed moreland than they could use inany year, because the plantsrobbed the soil of its nutrients.New fields had to be clearedevery two or three years.Planters settled along the river
Why did tobacco growerswant large plantations?
Where were small farmslocated?
Why did few people live in cities?
cash crop frontier
plantations homespun
vocabulary
focus your reading
71
VocabularyCash crop-a crop that a farmer raises to be sold for cash income.
VocabularyCash crop-a crop that a farmer raises to be sold for cash income.
VocabularyNotePlantations-large farms on which tobacco or other crops are grown for the market.
VocabularyNoteFrontier-the region at the edge of or just beyond a settled area.
VocabularyNoteHomespun-made in the home, especially woven or spun cloth.
Tenant farmsincluded smallhouses andplots of landfor growingcrops.
so that oceangoingships could come topick up theirtobacco. Thecolonists in SouthCarolina grew riceand indigo.
In the SouthernColonies, the planterswere the upper class.They built largeframe or brickhouses with columnsin front. The planterscould afford toimport fine furnitureand beautiful clothesfrom England.
Colonial FarmsThe majority of settlers in the Southern Colonies owned smallfarms. Arriving with little or no money, they worked asservants or rented land. In time, many of them bought a fewacres inland from the rivers. Some settled on the frontier—thewestern edge of settlement. Land was cheap on the frontier.
Plantationsconsisted of manybuildingsand fieldsfor planting.
They raised, grew, or made most of what they needed. A smallpatch of tobacco provided cash to buy what they could notmake for themselves.
Small farmers made up the middle class in the SouthernColonies. They lived in frame houses of three or four rooms.Frontier farmers often lived in log cabins. Most farmers woreclothes made of homespun, or homemade, cloth. They couldnot afford luxuries.
Towns and CitiesFew people settled in towns or cities, as hardly any townsexisted. In the Southern Colonies, plantations served many ofthe purposes of towns. Theplanters acted as merchants. Theyshipped their tobacco, as well ascrops grown by their poorerneighbors, from their wharves.They ordered manufactured goodsdirectly from England. Theplanters did not need townspeople
73Li fe in the Southern Colonies72
stop and think
In your notebook,
write three facts
about where and how
people lived in the
Southern Colonies.
Slave laborwas usedfor growing,drying, andpackingtobacco.
Large portcities providedaccess to ships.
Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722 –1793)Early in 1740, Colonel George Lucas wrote a letter to his eighteen-year-old daughter, Eliza. Lucas was on duty with the British army in theCaribbean. Eliza was at home in South Carolina. Colonel Lucas suggestedthat it was time for Eliza to think about marriage. He proposed two men assuitable husbands, one an elderly gentleman with money. “I beg leave tosay to you,” she quickly replied, “that the riches of Peru and Chile, if hehad them put together, could not purchase a sufficient esteem for him tomake him my husband.” Her father said nothing more on that subject.
Eliza Lucas was a determined young woman. In 1738, she moved fromEngland with her family to South Carolina, where her father had boughtthree plantations. In his absence, and with hermother in ill health, she managed oneplantation by herself. She supervised theoverseers at the other two. She alsoread for two hours each day,practiced music two hours, didneedlework for an hour, and helpedher younger sister learn to readand write.
Eliza Lucas also experimentedwith indigo, a plant used to makeblue dye. Her father sent her indigoseeds, convinced that this Caribbeanplant could be a moneymaker forSouth Carolina. Frost killed the first crop.The plants came up the next year, but the dyemaker ruined the dye. The next crop was a complete failure. Finally, in1744, Eliza Lucas’s patience paid off. She grew the colony’s firstsuccessful crop of indigo. Three years later, South Carolina exported 135,000 pounds of the blue dye. Production increased thereafter.
In 1744, Eliza married Charles Pinckney, a husband of her ownchoosing. They had four children. The eldest, Charles CotesworthPinckney, was a general in the Revolutionary War. Their youngest son,Thomas, became governor of South Carolina. Eliza Lucas Pinckney diedof cancer in 1793 at age seventy. President George Washington asked tobe a pallbearer at her funeral.
75
such as carpenters, wagon-makers, and blacksmiths. They hadskilled slaves to do that work.
Most of the towns and small cities that did exist werecenters of colonial government. These included Annapolis, thecapital of the Maryland Colony. In 1699, Williamsburgreplaced the little village of Jamestown as Virginia’s capital.Savannah was both the capital and main port city of Georgia.The largest city was Charles Town, South Carolina, which hada population of 7,000 people by 1750.
Many of the wealthier rice and indigo planters kept homesin seacoast cities. These homes were used to escape the heatand humidity of the interior. While in the city, wealthy planterssocialized and established themselves as community leaders.
Putting It All TogetherDiscuss your Focus Your Reading answers with a partner. Thenwork together to create a table labeled “Plantation Owners” and“Small Farmers.” Compare their ways of life.
74 Chapter 5
77Li fe in the Southern Colonies
2L E S S O N
76 Chapter 5
Slaves were broughtto America in tightlypacked slave ships.
Being a servant was a hard life.Most worked in the fields orcleared new farmland. They couldnot leave the farm or plantationwithout permission. Single peopleneeded permission to marry.Servants had to make up any timethat was lost due to illness orabsence. Many tried to run away,often successfully.
Thinking on Your OwnRead the Focus Your Reading questions and vocabulary. What dothey tell you about who did most of the work in the SouthernColonies? Talk about your ideas with a partner. Then write ashort paragraph summarizing your main points.
The Southern Coloniesalways needed farmworkers. Tobacco, rice, andindigo were labor-intensivecrops. Growing, harvesting,and shipping these crops tomarket required long hours ofmanual labor. The servantsand slaves who did this workmade up the lower classes inthe Southern Colonies.
UnfreeServants
In the early years ofcolonization, planters solvedthe labor problem by importing unfree white workers. Somewere convicts shipped to the colonies to work out their prisonterms. Others were redemptioners, people in the colonies whosold their labor. The buyer owned the person’s services for afixed period in return for food, clothing, and shelter. Mostunfree workers came to the colonies as indentured servants.
At least half of the white settlers in the English colonies wereindentured servants. These workers signed a labor contractbefore leaving England. The contractor paid their passage toAmerica and provided them with food and clothing. In return,the servant agreed to work in the colonies for a period of fourto seven years. At the end of the time period, most servantsreceived a few acres of farmland as freedom dues.
Why were the SouthernColonies always in need ofworkers?
How did indentured servantsget to the colonies?
Why did African slavesreplace white servants?
labor-intensive
redemptioners
indentured servants
triangle trade
slave codes
vocabulary
focus your reading
stop and think
Think about how
owning land and
social class relate to
each other. Write two
or three sentences
that explain the
relationship. Discuss
your answer with a
partner or the class.
VocabularyLabor intensive-a task that requires a great deal of work to accomplish.
VocabularyRedemptioners-laborers who signed a contract to work for a period of years in return for food, shelter,and clothing.
VocabularyTriangle trade-trade routes between the original thirteen colonies, England, and Africa.
VocabularyIndentured servants-laborers who signed a contract to work for a period of years to pay for passage to the colonies, food and clothing,
VocabularySlave codes-colonial laws designed to control slaves.
Conditions onthe slave shipwere terrible.
79Li fe in the Southern Colonies78 Chapter 5
Slavesarriving atJamestown
By 1700, African slaves were common throughout theSouthern Colonies. Virginia had approximately 10,000 Africanslaves by that time. At first, African slaves and English servantswere treated in a similar way. As the number of slaves increased,that changed. The colonies enacted slave codes. These lawsenslaved Africans andtheir descendants for as long as they lived. The slave codes alsocontrolled every aspect of a slave’s life.
Putting It AllTogetherCreate a two-columnchart in your notebook.Label the first column“Unfree Servants” and thesecond “Slaves.” Usinginformation from thechapter, describe eachtype of labor in theappropriate column.
African SlavesIn 1619, a Dutch slave trader sold the first African slaves inVirginia. The number of slaves grew slowly. It was cheaper for aplanter to import a servant than to buy a slave. However,servants who ran away were difficult to recover. They blendedinto the white population. Every five years or so, planters had totrain new workers. Intime, they decided thatslaves cost less in thelong run.
Many of the slavetraders followed aroute that becameknown as the triangletrade. This is becausethe routes formed theshape of a triangle. On one leg, traders brought sugar andmolasses from the West Indies to the colonies. These productswere used to make rum, which was shipped to Africa andtraded for slaves. The slaves were then shipped to the WestIndies and the colonies. Many other goods were also shippedacross the Atlantic, such as indigo, wood, and iron.
L E S S O N
81
A Tightly Packed Slave ShipSlave ship captains disagreed on how tightly to pack their human cargo.The “loose-packers” argued that slaves arrived in better condition andbrought higher prices if allowed some additional space. The “tight-packers” replied that the largerthe cargo, the greater theprofits, even if more slaves diedon the voyage. The following isa firsthand description of atightly packed ship.
80
Thinking on Your OwnRead the Focus Your Reading questions with a partner. Together,discuss possible answers. Write a possible answer for eachquestion in your notebook.
The growing number offarms and plantationscaused serious problems forthe native people. Entirevillages died from diseasesbrought by explorers andsettlers. By clearing fields inthe forests, the settlersdestroyed native huntinggrounds. Settlers’ dogs alsochased the deer away. Thecolonial settlements succeeded,but only at the expense of theNative Americans.
3
How did the Powhatan chiefsreact to the Englishsettlement of Virginia?
Why did angry frontier settlersattack and burn Jamestown?
What did white settlers inthe Carolinas do to theNative Americans besidestaking their land?
Bacon’s Rebellion
Yamasee Border War
vocabulary
focus your reading
GA
VA
MD
Current state boundries
Area of European settlement
“The cargo of a vess
el of a hundred tons or a
little
more is calculated to pu
rchase from 220 to 250 s
laves.
Their lodging rooms belo
w the deck which are thre
e
(for the men, the boys an
d the women) besides a p
lace
for the sick, are sometim
es more than five feet hig
h
and sometimes less; and
this height is divided tow
ard
the middle for the slaves
to lie in two rows, one
above
the other, on each side o
f the ship, close to each
other
like books upon a shelf.
I have known them so cl
ose
that the shelf would not
easily contain one more.
The poor creatures, thus
cramped, are likewise in
irons
for the most part which
makes it difficult for the
m to
turn or move or attempt
to rise or to lie down wi
thout
hurting themselves or eac
h other. Every morning,
perhaps, more instances
than one are found of th
e
living and the dead faste
ned together.”
Quoted in Daniel P. Manni
x in collaboration with Mal
colm Cowley,
Black Cargoes: A History of t
he Atlantic Slave Trade, 1518
–1865.
reading for understanding
How many slaves could a ship hold?
How were they separated intogroups?
What kept the slaves from movingaround?
VocabularyBacon’s Rebellion-an uprising in 1676 of frontier settlers in Virginia.
VocabularyYamasee Border War-a war between the Yamasee and white settlers in South Carolina.
Some colonistsfound themselvesin conflict withNative Americangroups.
Jamestown wasburned duringBacon’s Rebellion.
83Li fe in the Southern Colonies82 Chapter 5
uprising. Each time, the colonists hit back, destroying everynative village they could find. In the end, the colonists drovethe native people out of eastern Virginia.
Bacon’s RebellionThe conflict then shifted to the Virginia frontier. In 1676, fightingbroke out between settlers and the Susquehannock. Led byNathaniel Bacon, the settlers asked Governor William Berkeleyto send troops. Berkeley refused because he wanted to protecthis business of trading furs with the locals. Bacon led 400 armedmen to Jamestown. The farmers burned the town because theywere angry at Berkeley. This uprising, known as Bacon’sRebellion, ended when Bacon fell ill and died. His followerseither surrendered or were captured. Twenty-three participantsin the uprising were convicted and hanged. Conflict on thefrontier continued until the settlers drove the native populationcompletely out of Virginia.
Conflict in the CarolinasFighting between settlers and native people broke out next inNorth and South Carolina. The colonists not only took land,but they also enslaved the local people. In 1712, the Tuscaroraof North Carolina attacked and killed 130 slave traders. Thesurvivors burned a Tuscarora fort, killing over 150 NativeAmericans. The YamaseeBorder War broke out in 1715in South Carolina. The Yamaseekilled more than 400 settlers.Most of the Yamasee weretracked down and killed or soldas slaves. The violencecontinued until 1718, when theremaining Native Americansleft the Carolinas.
Putting It All TogetherReturn to the answers you wrote earlier for the Focus YourReading questions. Revise or expand your answers based on whatyou have read. Share your answers with a partner or the class.
Uprisings inVirginia
Powhatan, the chief of thePowhatan Confederation, keptwaiting for the English to leaveJamestown. He did not wantthem to stay forever. Instead ofleaving, however, the settlers keptcoming. In 1609, Powhatandeclared war against the settlers.Fighting continued for the nextfour years. Opechancanough, thenext chief, tried to drive thecolonists out once and for all. Asurprise attack in 1622 killed atleast 347 settlers. In 1664, another500 colonists died in a second
stop and think
Make a Venn diagram
to describe what
happened to Native
Americans in the
Southern Colonies.
Label one circle
“Virginia” and the
other “The Carolinas.”
In the overlapping
area, write words that
describe what they
experienced in
common. In the other
circles describe how
they were treated
differently.
85Li fe in the Southern Colonies84 Chapter 5
Comparing TablesTables present different kinds of information. Both tablesbelow contain information about the growth of slavery inEngland’s North American colonies. But the information is notthe same. The first step in using a table is to see what kind ofinformation it contains. It also is important to compare tables ifmore than one is available. A second table may providevaluable information that the first does not include.
Use the two tables to answer the following questions:
1 Both tables have a “Total” column. How are they different?2 Which table tells you the number of slaves in the New England
and Middle Colonies in 1700? What is the answer?
3 Which table would you use to find out what percentage ofslaves lived in the South in 1740? What was the percentage?
4 In what year did the slave population exceed 10 percent ofthe total population? Which table includes that information?
5 In what decade—a period of ten years—did the total colonialpopulation grow the fastest? In what decade did the slavepopulation grow the fastest?
Tobacco provided Virginia and its neighboring colonieswith a cash crop. The tobacco planters had largeplantations. They needed a great deal of land because tobaccodrained the soil of nutrients. Families who owned small farmsmade up the middle class. They settled inland from the rivers,or on the frontier. They grew, raised, or made most of whatthey needed, including homespun clothing.
Tobacco, rice, and indigo were labor-intensive crops.Planters tried to solve their labor problem by hiring whiteservants called redemptioners and indentured servants. Both sold their labor for a period of four to seven years.
By 1700, African slaves were common throughout theSouthern Colonies. The triangle trade routes brought manyslaves to the colonies. At first, they were treated much likewhite servants, but that did not last long. As their numberincreased, the colonies enacted slave codes. These lawsenslaved Africans and their children forever.
As colonial settlement grew, Native Americans were pushedoff their land. The Powhatan fought with the Virginia colonistsmany times. In 1676, Bacon’s Rebellion increased tension withnative groups. Later, in 1715, the Yamasee Border Warresulted in the deaths of more than 400 colonists.
Chapter Review1 Create a poster that describes plantation, farm, and city life
in the Southern Colonies.
2 Imagine a conversation between a white indentured servant andan African slave about their lives. Write their pretend dialogue.
3 Write an article for a London newspaper about life incolonial Virginia. Include information about and possiblequotes from Chief Powhatan and John Rolfe.
4 Read over the vocabulary. Choose five words that are theleast familiar to you and invent a way to remember theirdefinitions. Use symbols, word games, pictures, or rhymes.
Colonial Population,1650–1760
1650 1660 1670 1680 16901700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 1760
50,368 75,058 111,935 151,507 210,372 250,888 331,711 466,185 629,445 905,563 1,170,760 1,593,625
3% 3% 4% 5% 7% 11% 13% 14% 14% 16% 20% 20%
Year Total population % Black
Slave Population,1650–1760
1650 1660 1670 1680 16901700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 1760
880 1,162 1,125 1,895 3,340 5,206 8,303
14,091 17,323 23,958 30,222 40,033
1,600 2,920 4,535 6,971
16,729 27,817 44,866 68,839 91,021
150,024 236,420 325,806
Year North TotalSouth
7201,758 3,410 5,076
13,389 22,611 36,563 54,748 73,698
126,066 206,198 285,773
