Class Conflict in the Southern

Colonies

Early Southern Cash Crops• 1610s: Tobacco

(Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina)

• 1690s: Rice (South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia)

• 1740s: Indigo (South Carolina, North Carolina)

Tobacco• Through the mid-1600s,

tobacco demand exceeded supply in Europe, so huge profits were made by tobacco planters

• Tobacco is labor-intensive: had to be tended, harvested, cured, and packed

Rice• Grown in the humid, mosquito-

infested lowlands of the Carolinas and Georgia

• Many settlers of South Carolina had come from Barbados and Jamaica, where slavery was already well-established, so they were more inclined to import slaves for the heavy labor of rice cultivation

• Additionally, since rice had been a staple crop of West Africa for centuries, African slaves already knew how to grow, harvest, & process it

Indigo• Developed as a

complimentary crop to rice – grew in dry, sandy soil (opposite of rice) and required care and harvesting in seasons opposite of rice as well

• Indigo is used to create a valuable blue dye for cloth manufacture

The Plantation System• Plantations = large

commercial estates where many laborers (usually slaves) live on the land and grow crops for the landowner

• To maximize profits, planters needed to use large amounts of labor to produce large crops

The Chesapeake Bay• The Chesapeake Bay region

provided the perfect combination of climate and navigable rivers to allow planters to both grow their crop and easily ship it to market

• As a result, few roads or towns were built, since they not only weren’t needed, they would actually make business more costly

Indentured Servants• Many poor farmers in England had

been forced off their land and left unemployed

• Some of these chose to “sell” themselves into indentured servitude – in exchange for their passage to America, they agreed to work a set term for the landowner who paid their way (usually 4 - 7 years)

• The landowner had to feed, clothe and shelter them for the duration of their contract

• Once the indenture ended, the servant was free to claim his own land and start his own farm

The Headright System• To further encourage

plantation owners to import indentures, landowners were granted a 50 acre “headright,” or bonus land, for each indenture brought over

• Since the average indenture also earned their master roughly 5 times what they cost each year, the indenture system made many landowners quite wealthy

The Planter Elite• The plantation system was

designed to help the rich get richer – those who could afford to buy slaves or pay for indentured servants grew even wealthier off of the labor and headrights such workers provided. MOST settlers never joined the ranks of the plantation-owning elite

Planter Power• With wealth comes

economic and political power

• The planters dominated local governing bodies, commanded the local militias (because they paid for them), and often served as de facto judges

Cultural Change• As the planter-class’ wealth

grew, they also began to distance themselves culturally from the rest of colonial society

• Built elaborate mansions, amused themselves with hunting, fishing, gambling, intellectual pursuits

• They had essentially made themselves the nobility of Colonial America

Indentured Servitude• About half of

indentured servants died before their contracts expired

• Those who survived often found that they could not afford the tools and goods needed to prosper on their own farms

Yeoman Farmers• Most indentures and other

immigrants were forced to move further inland (the “backcountry”) to find unused land to farm

• These farmers found it difficult to accumulate the wealth of the planters and were forced to live as subsistence farmers – growing just enough to feed themselves, with little room for profits

Yeoman Farmers• As a result, the yeomen

farmers could not afford to spend their time or land on “cash crops” and were unable to afford to buy slaves of their own

• For labor, they were forced to have large families

Social Pyramid• Planters – wealthy estate owners who grew cash crops and could

afford to own slaves/indentures• Yeomen farmers – free “backcountry” farmers who owned their

own land, but lacked the resources to grow cash crops or own slaves

• Tenant farmers – free laborers who rented land from others to farm for themselves

• Indentured servants – Europeans who had agreed to limited terms of indenture in exchange for their passage to the colonies

• Slaves – African or Indians held in involuntary servitude and used as manual labor to work the plantations of the planter class

Sir William Berkeley• Governor of Virginia from

1641 - 1677• Controlled the Virginia House

of Burgesses (legislature) by gifting land to members who supported his policies

• Exempted himself and his advisors from taxation and restricted voting privileges by putting minimum property requirements in place

Limiting the Frontier• Berkeley, like the rest of

the other planter elite, had no interests in making new land available to the yeomen farmers, especially if it endangered his own holdings by creating conflict with the Native American tribes of the “backcountry”

Frontier Unrest• In 1675, when war broke out

along the frontier between settlers and the Susquehannock tribe, Berkeley refused to provide military force to fight the Indians and instead ordered the construction of forts along a set frontier and engaged in peace talks with the Indians which would have denied access to Native lands for new white settlers

Nathaniel Bacon• Berkeley’s nephew• Angered over Indian

attacks against his own plantation on the frontier, Bacon sided with the yeomen and organized his own militia to continue the fight against the Indians

• Berkeley was not pleased, but sought a compromise

Compromise Fails• The House of Burgesses,

seeking to calm Bacon and his followers, voted to expand voting privileges, revoke tax-exemptions for the wealthiest planters, and authorized Bacon to raise 1000 men to battle the Indians, but Bacon was not satisfied

Declaration of the People of Virginia

• Issued by Bacon in July 1676

• Bacon and his followers formal complaint against Berkeley’s administration for levying unfair taxes, appointing only his planter peers to high positions, and refusing to protect the frontier against Indian attacks

Bacon’s Rebellion• July 1676, Bacon led his

militia to the capital at Jamestown and seized control of the Virginia colony

• Berkeley fled across the Chesapeake Bay and raised his own army to battle the rebels, but it was unnecessary, since Bacon died from dysentery in October and the rebellion fizzled

Outcomes of Bacon’s Rebellion• Berkeley was relieved of his

governorship by the king and formal British troops were sent to Virginia

• Since Jamestown had been burned during the rebellion, nearby Williamsburg assumed the position of capital of Virginia in 1699

• The House of Burgesses changed policy and began to support expansion of the frontier at the expense of the Native American tribes

Slavery Expands• The biggest change,

however, was an expansion of the use of slave labor – slaves, unlike indentured servants, would never be freed and, therefore, would never need their own land or the privileges that came with land ownership

Transition to Slavery• Planters also began to

realize that the use of slaves grew their wealth faster, since slaves had no contract term and could be bred to create new generations of slaves, so the indenture system died out

Other Reasons for Growth of Slavery

• Pennsylvania began offering free land to the poor, dramatically reducing the number of English poor interested in indenture

• In 1672, King Charles II granted a royal charter to the Royal African Company, essentially legalizing the slave trade in the English colonies and reducing the cost of slaves

• New laws passed in Virginia and Maryland made slavery hereditary, so the children born to slaves became slaves as well