The Southern Colonies consisted of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia focused on economic pursuits through cash crops grown on plantations like tobacco, cotton, rice, and indigo, while Maryland was founded for religious freedom as the sole Catholic colony. Plantation owners profited by selling land and utilizing indentured servants or slavery as labor sources to produce mass quantities of crops for export.
3. Main Purpose
• Economic (VA, NC, SC, GA)
– Cash crops grown on plantations for profit
• Religious (MD)
– The only Catholic colony among the original 13
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6. Plantation System
• Owners of land made money by selling land to
farmers who would establish a plantation
• Plantation- a farm that focuses on producing
mass quantities of one cash crop
• Cash crops- Tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo
7. Labor Sources
• Indentured Servants
– Pay passage to New World by working for a land
owner for a certain amount of time
– Would receive land at end of turn
• Slavery
– System of using slaves bought from traders for “free”
labor
– Originally, whites and natives were used as slaves;
eventually exclusively becomes Africans
