THE OTHER SOUTHERN COLONIES
Main Idea: Like the pioneer settlement in Virginia, other Southern Colonies featured plantation economies growing
cash crops for export that required a supply of field labor.
MARYLAND
GEORGIA
In 1634, Lord Baltimore started the colony of Maryland,
across the Chesapeake Bay from Virginia as a safe place
for Catholics. As Virginia, tobacco was the main crop
creating a demand for field labor.
The last of the North American English colonies was
founded in 1732 by James Oglethorpe. This colony was
established for two reasons. One was, Georgia serves as
a defensive buffer to protect the prosperous South
Carolina plantations from the threat of invasion from
Spanish Florida.
Soon after the colony was established, a large number
of Protestant English settlers immigrated to Maryland.
The original Catholic settlers were soon outnumbered.
To avoid intolerance and persecution, an Act of
Toleration was passed, granting religious freedom to all.
NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA
The Carolinas were established for economic reasons.
The colony was founded in 1663 when the King of
England gave the land to eight of his noblemen. The
noblemen hoped to make a profit by attracting settlers
from Virginia, who would grow tobacco.
In 1712, the Carolinas were divided into North and
South. North Carolina became known for producing tar,
and turpentine, made from pine trees, and used on
ships to seal them from leaks.
South Carolina became a colony of mostly large
plantations. Landowners purchased enslaved Africans to
serve as field workers. Charleston became a major port
for shipping rice and indigo (a blue dye) and for
receiving slaves.
Second, thousands of people in England were being
imprisoned for debt. The English government thought it
could relieve the overcrowded jails if debtors could be
shipped to this American colony to start life over.
There were strict regulations in Georgia. There was a
ban on alcohol and slaves were forbidden in the colony.
Partly because of these regulations and the constant
threat of Spanish attack, the colony did not prosper.
By 1752, Oglethorpe gave up his plan and Georgia
became a royal colony. The colony grew slowly by
adopting the plantation system of South Carolina. But
even at the time of the American Revolution, Georgia
was still the smallest and poorest of the 13 colonies.