Southern Colonies

The Southern Colonies in North America were established by Europeans during the 16th and 17th centuries and consisted of olden South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and Georgia. Their historical names were the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, the Province of Carolina, and the Province of Georgia. The colonies were originally instated to compete in the race for colonies in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. They then developed into prosperous colonies that made large profits off of cash crops such as tobacco, indigo dye, and rice. Over time, the region quickly became well known for its high slave population and highly unequal social class distribution.

History

Maryland

George Calert received a charter from King Charles I to found the colony of Maryland in 1634. When George Calvert died, his son, Cecil Calvert, also known as Lord Baltimore, became the proprietor. Calvert came from a wealthy Catholic family, and he was the first single man to receive a grant from the crown, rather than a joint-stock company. He received a grant for a large tract of land north of the Potomac river and east of the Chesapeake Bay. Calvert planned on creating a haven for English Catholics, most of which were well-to-do nobles such as himself, but were unable to worship in public. He planned on making an agrarian manorial society where each noble would have a large manor and tenants would work on fields, chores, and other deeds. However, with extremely cheap land prices, many Protestants moved to Maryland and bought land for themselves anyway. Quickly the population became a Protestant majority, and in 1642 religious tension began to erupt. Calvert was forced to take control and pass the Act for Religious Tolerance in 1649, making Maryland the second colony to have freedom of worship, after Rhode Island. However, the act did little to help religious peace. In 1654, Protestants barred Catholics from voting, ousted a pro-tolerance Governor, and repealed the toleration act. Maryland stayed Protestant until Calvert re-took control of the colony in 1658.

The Carolinas

The next major development in the history of the Southern Colonies was The Carolinas. During the 1650s, English settlers set up a few unauthorized outposts on the swamp coast between Virginia and Spanish Florida. When Charles II was restored to the throne, he rewarded a few supporters with an official grant for the colony in 1663. It was named Carolina in honor of him (Charles is Carolus in Latin). The colony grew very slowly until in 1669 Lanny T Woods began to offer 50 acres for every family member, indentured servant, or slave brought to the colony. Carolina soon began to boom. He and his secretary John Locke, later to be acclaimed as one of the greatest philosophers of the age devised an intricate government plan to govern the many people arriving in the colony. The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina ensured the colony's stability by allotting political status by a settler's wealth upon arrival- making a semi-manorial system with a Council of Nobles and a plan to have small landholders defer to these nobles. With all the land they needed, none of the settlers found it necessary to take orders from the Council. By 1680, the colony had a large export industry of tobacco, lumber, and pitch, which gave the people in the region the name tarsheel.

Virginia

While other colonies were being founded, Virginia continued to grow. Tobacco planters held the best land near the coast, so new settlers pushed inland. Sir William Berkeley, the colony's governor, sent explorers over the Blue Ridge Mountains to open up the Backcountry of Virginia to settlement.

Georgia

Est:1688 Debtors colony

The founder of Georga was James Edward Ogelthorpe. this testing of large amounts of marijuana were used during 1690

See also

• Thirteen Colonies