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Traditionally, when we tell the story of "Colonial America," we are talking about the English colonies along the Eastern seaboard. That story is incomplete-by the time Englishmen had begun to establish colonies in earnest, there were plenty of French, Spanish, Dutch and even Russian colonial outposts on the American continent-but the story of those 13 colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) is an important one. It was those colonies that came together to form the United States.

English Colonial Expansion

Sixteenth-century England was a tumultuous place. Because they could make more money from selling wool than from selling food, many of the nation's landowners were converting farmers' fields into pastures for sheep. This led to a food shortage; at the same time, many agricultural workers lost their jobs.

Did you know? Virginia Dare, the first American-born child of English parents, was born in Roanoke in 1587.

The 16th century was also the age of mercantilism, an extremely competitive economic philosophy that pushed European nations to acquire as many colonies as they could. As a result, for the most part, the English colonies in North America were business ventures. They provided an outlet for England's surplus population and (in some cases) more religious freedom than England did, but their primary purpose was to make money for their sponsors.

The Tobacco Colonies

In 1606, King James I divided the Atlantic seaboard in two, giving the southern half to the London Company (later the Virginia Company) and the northern half to the Plymouth Company. The first English settlement in North America had actually been established some 20 years before, in 1587, when a group of colonists (91 men, 17 women and nine children) led by Sir Walter Raleigh settled on the island of Roanoke. Mysteriously, by 1590 the Roanoke colony had vanished entirely. Historians still do not know what became of its inhabitants.

In 1606, just a few months after James I issued its charter, the London Company sent 144 men to Virginia on three ships: the Godspeed, the Discovery and the Susan Constant. They reached the Chesapeake Bay in the spring of 1607 and headed about 60 miles up the James River, where they built a settlement they called Jamestown. The Jamestown colonists had a rough time of it: They were so busy looking for gold and other exportable resources that they could barely feed themselves. It was not until 1616, when Virginia's settlers learned how to grow tobacco, that it seemed the colony might survive. The first African slaves arrived in Virginia in 1619.

In 1632, the English crown granted about 12 million acres of land at the top of the Chesapeake Bay to Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore. This colony, named Maryland after the queen, was similar to Virginia in many ways. Its landowners produced tobacco on large plantations that depended on the labor of indentured servants and (later) African slaves.

But unlike Virginia's founders, Lord Baltimore was a Catholic, and he hoped that his colony would be a refuge for his persecuted coreligionists. Maryland became known for its policy of religious toleration for all.

The New England Colonies

The first English emigrants to what would become the New England colonies were a small group of Puritan separatists, later called the Pilgrims, who arrived in Plymouth in 1620. Ten years later, a wealthy syndicate known as the Massachusetts Bay Company sent a much larger (and more liberal) group of Puritans to establish another Massachusetts settlement. With the help of local natives, the colonists soon got the hang of farming, fishing and hunting, and Massachusetts prospered.

As the Massachusetts settlements expanded, they generated new colonies in New England. Puritans who thought that Massachusetts was not pious enough formed the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven (the two combined in 1665). Meanwhile, Puritans who thought that Massachusetts was too restrictive formed the colony of Rhode Island, where everyone-including Jews-enjoyed complete "liberty in religious concernments." To the north of the Massachusetts colony, a handful of adventurous settlers formed the colony of New Hampshire.

The Middle Colonies

In 1664, King Charles II gave the territory between New England and Virginia, much of which was already occupied by Dutch traders and landowners called patroons, to his brother James, the Duke of York. The English soon absorbed Dutch New Netherland and renamed it New York, but most of the Dutch people (as well as the Belgian Flemings and Walloons, French Huguenots, Scandinavians and Germans who were living there) stayed put. This made New York one of the most diverse and prosperous colonies in the New World.

In 1680, the king granted 45,000 square miles of land west of the Delaware River to William Penn, a Quaker who owned large swaths of land in Ireland. Penn's North American holdings became the colony of "Penn's Woods," or Pennsylvania. Lured by the fertile soil and the religious toleration that Penn promised, people migrated there from all over Europe. Like their Puritan counterparts in New England, most of these emigrants paid their own way to the colonies-they were not indentured servants-and had enough money to establish themselves when they arrived. As a result, Pennsylvania soon became a prosperous and relatively egalitarian place.

The Southern Colonies

By contrast, the Carolina colony, a territory that stretched south from Virginia to Florida and west to the Pacific Ocean, was much less cosmopolitan. In its northern half, hardscrabble farmers eked out a living. In its southern half, planters presided over vast estates that produced corn, lumber, beef and pork, and-starting in the 1690s-rice. These Carolinians had close ties to the English planter colony on the Caribbean island of Barbados, which relied heavily on African slave labor, and many were involved in the slave trade themselves. As a result, slavery played an important role in the development of the Carolina colony. (It split into North Carolina and South Carolina in 1729.)

In 1732, inspired by the need to build a buffer between South Carolina and the Spanish settlements in Florida, the Englishman James Oglethorpe established the Georgia colony. In many ways, Georgia's development mirrored South Carolina's.

In 1700, there were about 250,000 European and African settlers in North America's thirteen English colonies. By 1775, on the eve of revolution, there were nearly 2.5 million. These colonists did not have much in common, but they were able to band together and fight for their independence.
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Traditionally, when we tell the story of "Colonial America," we are talking about the English colonies along the Eastern seaboard. That story is incomplete-by the time Englishmen had begun to establish colonies in earnest, there were plenty of French, Spanish, Dutch and even Russian colonial outposts on the American continent-but the story of those 13 colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) is an important one.

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| AUTHOR | ushistory.org
| TITLE OF PAGE | The Southern Colonies
| TITLE OF PROGRAM | U.S. History Online Textbook
| URL OF PAGE | http://www.ushistory.org/us/5.asp
| DATE OF ACCESS | Wednesday, September 06, 2017
| COPYRIGHT | 2017

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The Southern Colonies: The Establishment and Settlement of the 13 original colonies

Map of Southern Colonies
This Map shows the five Southern Colonies of Colonial America composed of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
Southern Colonies
The Southern Colonies provides important information and interesting facts about each of the 13 Colonies including the date the colony was established, the region (New England, Middle or Southern) the systems of Colonial government, religion, details of trade and economic activity and the names of famous people associated with the founding and establishment each colony.

For additional facts and info refer to Colonial Society . The Southern Colonies provides the ability to see at a glance the differences between the regions on a chart.

Southern Colonies Chart

Date Name of Colony
or Settlement Region Government Religion Major Towns Famous
People

1607

Virginia Colony

Southern

Royal

Anglican
and Baptist

Jamestown, Williamsburg and Richmond

John Smith

1633

Maryland Colony

Southern

Proprietary

Anglicans and Baptists

Baltimore and Annapolis

George Calvert

1653

North Carolina Colony

Southern

Royal

Anglican
and Baptist

Brunswick Town and Raleigh

Lords Proprietors

Charter of Carolina

1663

South Carolina Colony

Southern

Royal

Anglican
and Baptist

Charleston and Sumter

1732

Georgia Colony

Southern

Royal

Anglican
and Baptist

Savannah, Hardwicke and Wrightsboro

James Oglethorpe

Southern Colonies Chart

1620

Plymouth Settlement
(De-established 1691)

Southern

Royal Charter

Puritan, Anglican
and Baptist

Jamestown

William Bradford

Information and Facts about the Southern Colonies
Information and facts about the the Southern Colonies of Colonial America:

Fact 1 - Geography: The geography of the Southern Colonies featured fertile soil, hilly coastal plains, forests, long rivers and swamp areas

Fact 2 - Natural Resources: Fish, forests (timber) and good agricultural land, farming was important. Exported agricultural products to other colonies

Fact 3 - Religion: Not dominated by a specific religion which gave way to religious freedom for Baptists, Anglicans and others. Refer to Religion in the Colonies

Fact 4 - Climate: Warmest of the three regions, winters not difficult to survive, but the hot and humid summers gave rise to the spread of disease. The warm climate made it possible to grow crops throughout the year and was ideally suited for plantations

Fact 5 - Trade / Exports: Tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo (dye), lumber, furs, farm products - refer to Colonial Times

There were considerable differences between the New England, Middle and Southern regions. Economic activities and trade were dependant of the environment in which the Colonists lived refer to Southern Colonies Colonies - Economic Activity & Trade
Triangular Trade. The geography and climate impacted the trade and economic activities of Southern Colonies. The Southern Colonies concentrated on agriculture and developed the plantations exporting tobacco, cotton, corn, vegetables, grain, fruit and livestock. The Southern Colonies had the largest slave population who worked on the Slave Plantations. Plantations grew cotton, tobacco, indigo (a purple dye), and other crops. Some of the Southern plantations were massive and consisted of the main house, slave quarters, a dairy, blacksmith's shop, laundry, smokehouse and barns which made the plantations to large degree, self-sufficient. Crops were traded for items that could not be produced on the plantations including farm tools, shoes, lace, and dishes.

Southern Colonies Government
All of the systems of government in the Southern Colonies elected their own legislature, they were all democratic, they all had a governor, governor's court, and a court system. The systems of Government in the Southern Colonies were either Royal or Proprietary. Definitions of both of the government systems are as follows:

Royal Government: The Royal Colonies were ruled directly by the English monarchy

Propriety Government: The King granted land to people in North America, who then formed Proprietary Colonies.

For additional facts and information refer to Colonial Government.

Southern Colonies Religion
The Southern Colonies were not dominated by a single religion which gave way to more liberal attitudes and some religious freedom. There were predominantly Anglicans and Baptists in the Southern region and Colonies. For additional facts and information about religion refer to Religion in the Colonies .

Southern Colonies
The Southern Colonies article provides important information and interesting facts at a glance about the Southern Colonies including the date the colonies were established, the systems of government, religions, details of trade and the economic activities in the Southern Colonies. The names of important people associated with the founding and establishment of the Southern Colonies. A helpful, illustrated educational resource for teachers, kids and children.

Colonial America Time Period Southern Colonies Timeline
Discover interesting information and facts about the history of the Southern. For a more comprehensive history timeline detailing specific events relating to all of the 13 Colonies refer to . This Southern Colonies Timeline provides a list detailing key events and dates of this amazing period in Colonial history. The five Southern Colonies of Colonial America composed of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. A comprehensive list of the key events which are important to the Southern Colonies Timeline.

Southern Colonies Timeline

Southern Colonies Timeline

Maryland was settled. King Charles I gave land to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore to create a haven for Catholics in America.

1651
1651 1660 1663 The Navigation Acts. The colonies represent a lucrative source of wealth and trade. Navigation Acts regulate colonial trade and enable England to collect duties (taxes)

1675-l676 Bacon's Rebellion. Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in 1676 - 1677 against American Indians and the colonial government in the Virginia Colony and Bacon's Declaration of the People

King James II appoints Sir Edmund Andros to serve as Captain General and Governor in Chief of New England. Sir Edmund Andros causes dissension with the colonists as he does not have to answer to any elected assembly

1711

1711-1713: The Tuscarora War in Northern Carolina. The Tuscarora tribe was defeated by James Moore and Yamasee warriors

17 58

The Anglo-Cherokee War (1758-1761) - The Cherokee uprising in present-day Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas.

1765 The Stamp Act of 1765

Colonies Timeline

Southern Colonies Timeline - 1607 to 1696

Southern Colonies
The Southern Colonies provides important information and interesting facts at a glance about each of the 13 Colonies including the date the colony was established, the regions (New England, Middle or Southern Colonies) the systems of government, religions, details of trade and economic activities and the names of important people associated with the founding and establishment of the 13 Colonies. The 13 Colonies Chart provides the ability to see the differences between the regions quickly and is a useful educational resource for kids and children

Southern Colonies

Interesting Facts and information via the Southern Colonies

Southern Colonies history timeline

Fast Facts and info with the Southern Colonies

The Southern Colonies is great resource for kids

Social Studies Homework help for kids on Southern Colonies

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Check out this site for facts about the Southern Colonies. The Government, Geography and Religion of the Southern Colonies. Fast facts about the Southern Colonies