The document summarizes the history and development of the Southern colonies in British North America. It discusses the founding of Jamestown in 1607 and the early struggles of the colony. It also covers the establishment of cash crops like tobacco, the growth of slavery, and the creation of representative assemblies in the colonies of Virginia and Maryland. The Southern colonies depended on the labor of enslaved Africans to produce lucrative export crops.

1. SOUTHERN
COLONIES

2. 1. Charter – a document which gives permission to organize a settlement or
start a colony
2. Joint-stock company – a company in which investors buy stock in the
company in return for a share in its future profits
3. Burgesses – elected representatives to an assembly
4. Sea dogs – English sailors who raided Spanish treasure ships
5. Cash crop – a crop produced solely for its ability to bring profit rather than for
use by the grower

4. 6. Indentured servants – colonists who received free passage to North
America in exchange for working without pay for a certain number of years
7. Slave codes – laws passed in the colonies to control the slaves
8. Proprietary colony – a colony whose owners controlled the government

5. • Religious differences and trade rivalry
between Catholic King Philip II of Spain
and Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of
England led to war between the
two countries in 1588.
• Queen Elizabeth knighted Sir Francis Drake,
an adventurer and “sea dog”. He attacked
Spanish ships and ports.
• King Philip sent the Spanish Armada, a fleet of
warships, to conquer England, but they did
not succeed.
• The defeat of the Spanish Armada marked the end of Spanish control of the
seas

6. The Lost Colony of Roanoke
- In 1584, Queen Elizabeth granted Sir Walter Raleigh a charter to establish a
settlement in North America
- Raleigh’s scouts fond Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North
Carolina
- In 1585, 100 men settled on Roanoke; they returned to England after a difficult
winter

8. • In 1587, John White led another group of settlers to Roanoke
• White’s granddaughter, Virginia Dare, became the first English child to be
born in North America
• The settlers tried to build a colony, but the quickly ran low on supplies.
John White sailed back to England for supplies and to recruit more settlers
• When he returned three years later, he found Roanoke deserted. The
colonists of Roanoke had disappeared.

10. • In 1606, the Virginia Company of London, a joint-stock company, sent 144
settlers to build a colony in North America
• After losing 40 people on the voyage, in April of 1607 they entered the
Chesapeake Bay
• They named the new colony Jamestown after King James
• Jamestown colonists faced many difficulties. There was not enough farmland,
and the settlers spent more time looking for gold and silver than in producing
food

12. • By the spring of 1608, only 38 of the Jamestown colonists were left
• Captain John Smith explored the land and forced the settlers to work. He also
acquired corn from the Native Americans led by Chief Powhatan
• 400 new settlers arrived in the summer of 1609. However, Smith returned to
England in October, leaving the settlers without a strong leader
• The winter of 1609-1610 became known as “the Starving Time”, and there was
much violence between the Native Americans and the settlers
• By the spring of 1610, there were only 60 survivors left

14. • By 1614, colonist John Rolfe grew tobacco and sold it in England
• Tobacco became a major cash crop, and the colony of Virginia prospered
• Rolfe married Chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas, which helped keep
peace between the settlers and the Native Americans for a short time
• When the Virginia Company could no longer protect its colonists, the English
crown canceled their charter in 1624, and Virginia became the first royal
colony for England in America

15. • Private land ownership encouraged the colonists to work harder
• To attract new settlers to Jamestown, Virginia, the headright system was
created.
- Any settler who paid their own way to Virginia was given 50 acres of land
- This system brought thousands of new colonists to Virginia

16. • As the colony of Virginia grew, there was a need for a representative
government
• On July 30, 1619, the House of Burgesses met for the first time
• Ten towns in the VA colony had sent two elected representatives, or burgesses.

17. • In 1619, 20 African laborers
were sold to Virginia planters
to work in the tobacco fields
• Because they were baptized
Christians, they were possibly
indentured servants rather than slaves
• However, Africans who arrived
in North America on later ships
were sold as slaves.

18. • In 1632, King Charles I issued a charter to George Calvert, the first Lord
Baltimore
• Lord Baltimore named the colony Maryland
• He wanted the colony to be a refuge (safe place) for English Catholics escaping
religious persecution
• Maryland was a proprietary colony

20. • Though it was founded by Catholics, many Protestants lived in Maryland as
well. There were conflicts between the two groups.
• In 1649, Lord Baltimore issued the Toleration Act of 1649, which made it a
crime to restrict the religious rights of Christians
• The Toleration Act of 1649 was the first law supporting religious tolerance in
the English colonies

22. • In 1663, King Charles II gave land to some of his supporters. By 1712, this
single colony separated into two - North Carolina and South Carolina
• Both became royal colonies in 1729
• In 1732, James Oglethorpe was granted a charter to found Georgia; by 1752,
Georgia was also a royal colony

23. • High taxes and poor protection from the Native Americans led to protests
among the colonists
• In 1676, Nathanial Bacon led an attack on some Native Americans. Bacon
opposed trade with the Native people, and felt that the colonists should
be allowed to take their land
• Bacon and his followers burned Jamestown, and until his death Bacon
controlled much of the colony
• This conflict became known as Bacon’s Rebellion

24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zasMLdql2n4

25. • The economy of the Southern colonies depended on cash crops such as
tobacco, rice, and indigo (used for making blue dye)
• These crops required a lot of workers
• By the 1700s, the main source of labor was enslaved Africans
• Laws called slave codes were passed to control the behavior of the slaves.