The Southern Colonies

The Colonies

• Maryland• Virginia• North Carolina• South Carolina• Georgia

Main Purpose

• Economic (VA, NC, SC, GA)– Cash crops grown on plantations for profit

• Religious (MD)– The only Catholic colony among the original 13

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

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