THE SOUTHERN COLONIES

TABACCO

• Largely agricultural
• Based on cash crops
• tobacco, rice, indigo
• Require large amounts of labor
• Led to plantations

TABACCO

• Demand for tobacco high in Europe, supply low
• Planters become very wealthy
• Tobacco very labor intensive
• Need lots of labor to get rich

The Planter Elite

• Southern society had many social classesr
• The Planter Elite or gentry were upper class
• The Planter Elite or gentry were upper class
• Plantations were self contained communities
• In 1600s, plantations were small

The Planter Elite

• Labor was indentured servants
• By 1700, used slave labor
• As wealth increased, so did leisure time

Backcountry Farmers

• Also called yeomen farmers
• Lived away from coast
• Worked small plots of land
• Mainly subsistence farmers

Indentured Servants

• Often swapped 50 acres (headright system) for passage to colonies
• Gentry paid their way
• Got land back when debt paid
• Had to work 7 years
• Often died & didn’t claim land

Indentured Servants

• Lowest social class

Crisis Over Land

• Many tenant farmers & indentured servants want to own land
• 1670s- available land in Piedmont- foothills
• Gentry owned plantations in the Tidewater (near coast)
• Didn’t want people in Piedmont, would make Native Americans mad
• 1675, war between Native Americans and settler in Piedmont

Crisis Over Land

• Governor stopped the fighting

Nathaniel Bacon

• Bacon- gentry with land near the piedmont
• Had been attacked by Native Americans
• Organized militia and attacked Native Americans
• Bacon returned to Jamestown
• Seized city

NATHANIEL BACON

• Charged governor with corruption
• Governor raised army
• Bacon got sick and died suddenly
• Rebellion ended

SLAVERY INCREASES IN VA

• After rebellion, VA expanded to get land for small farmers
• Plantation owners switch from indentured servants to slaves
• Why the switch?
• -don’t have to free slaves
• -cheap land in PA means fewer Indentured servants

SLAVERY INCREASES IN VA

• After rebellion, VA expanded to get land for small farmers
• Plantation owners switch from indentured servants to slaves
• Why the switch?
• -don’t have to free slaves
• -cheap land in PA means fewer Indentured servants

SLAVERY INCREASES IN VA

• -Royal African Company makes slaves plentiful

Slavery in the Colonies

• Olaudah Equiano- wrote an account of the Middle passage
• Middle Passage- transport of enslaved Africans to Americas
• Originally, slaves were treated like indentured servants
• 1683- Maryland says slaves don’t have the same rights as whites
• 1705- Virginia slave codes- regulated and defined slavery