Editing Southern Colonies

{{Short description|16/17th-century British colonies which became the Southern United States}}
[[File:Gacolony.png|thumb|Map of the colonies with the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763|proclamation line of 1763]] shown in red]]

The '''Southern Colonies''' within [[British America]] consisted of the [[Province of Maryland]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ushistory.org/us/5.asp|title = The Southern Colonies|access-date=2014-10-17}}</ref> the [[Colony of Virginia]], the [[Province of Carolina]] (in 1712 split into [[Province of North Carolina|North]] and [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]]), and the [[Province of Georgia]]. In 1763, the newly created colonies of [[East Florida]] and [[West Florida]] were added to the Southern Colonies by Great Britain until the [[Spanish Empire]] took back [[Spanish Florida|Florida]]. These colonies were the historical core of what became the [[Southern United States]], or "[[Dixie]]". They were located south of the [[Middle Colonies]], although Virginia and Maryland (located on the expansive [[Chesapeake Bay]] in the Upper South) were also called the [[Chesapeake Colonies]].

The Southern Colonies were overwhelmingly rural, with large agricultural operations, which made extensive use of slavery and indentured servitude. During a period of civil unrest, [[Bacon's Rebellion]] shaped the way that servitude and slavery worked in the South. After a series of attacks on the [[Susquehannock]], attacks that ensued after the group of natives burnt one of [[Nathaniel Bacon (Virginia colonist)|Bacon's]] farms, Bacon's arrest, along with other arrest warrants, were issued by [[William Berkeley (governor)|Governor Berkely]], for attacking the natives without his permission. Bacon avoided detainment, though, and then burnt [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]], in response to the governor previously denying him land in fear of native attacks. Bacon hadn't believed his policies were entirely conventional, saying that they didn't ensure protection to the [[English people|English settlers]], as well as the exclusion of Bacon from Berkeley's social clubs and friend groups. The rebellion dissolved some time in 1676, following [[Charles II of England|Charles II's]] initial sending of troops to restore order in the colony. This rebellion influenced the view of the Africans, helping create a completely African servitude and workforce in the Chesapeake Colonies, alleviating primarily White servitude, a working class that could be repugnant at times through disobedience and mischief. This also helped racial superiority in white regions, helping the poor and wealthy white people feel almost equal. It diminished alliances between white and black people, as had happened in [[Bacon's Rebellion]].<ref>{{cite book |title=U.S. History |date=2014 |publisher=OpenStax College |location=Houston, Texas |isbn=978-1-947172-08-1 |page=78 |url=https://openstax.org/details/books/us-history |access-date=12 September 2023}}</ref>

The colonies developed prosperous economies based on the cultivation of [[cash crop]]s, such as [[tobacco]],<ref name=tev1>{{cite book| last = Boyer| first = Paul S.| author-link = Paul S. Boyer| title = The Enduring Vision, 5th Edition| url = https://archive.org/details/enduringvision5thpaul| url-access = registration| publisher = Houghghton-Mifflin| page = [https://archive.org/details/enduringvision5thpaul/page/64 64] | year = 2004| isbn = 0-618-28065-0}}</ref> [[Indigofera|indigo]],<ref name=pink>{{cite web|url=http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_es_indigo.htm|last=West|first=Jean M.|work=Slavery in America|title=The Devil's Blue Dye and Slavery|access-date=2011-01-16|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120614034859/http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_es_indigo.htm|archive-date=2012-06-14}}</ref> and [[rice]].<ref name=tev2>{{cite book| last = Boyer| first = Paul S.| title = The Enduring Vision, 5th Edition| url = https://archive.org/details/enduringvision5thpaul| url-access = registration| publisher = [[Houghton-Mifflin]]| page = [https://archive.org/details/enduringvision5thpaul/page/77 77] | year = 2004| isbn = 0-618-28065-0}}</ref> An effect of the cultivation of these crops was the presence of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] in significantly higher proportions than in other parts of British America.

==Carolina==
The [[Province of Carolina]], originally chartered in 1608, was an [[English overseas possessions|English]] and later [[British colonization of the Americas|British colony]] of [[North America]]. Because the original charter was unrealized and was ruled invalid, a new charter was issued to a group of eight English noblemen, the [[Lord proprietor|Lords Proprietors]], on March 24, 1663.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/nc01.asp | title = Charter yes history the best thing since stuff crust pizza of Carolina - March 24, 1663 | date = 18 December 1998 | access-date = 2012-03-24}}</ref> Led by [[Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury|Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury]], the Province of Carolina was controlled from 1663 to 1729 by these lords and their heirs.

Shaftesbury and his secretary, the philosopher [[John Locke]], devised an intricate plan to govern the many people arriving in the colony. The [[Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina]] sought to ensure the colony's stability by allotting political status by a settler's wealth upon arrival - making a [[Manorialism|semi-manorial system]] with a Council of Nobles and a plan to have small landholders defer to these nobles. However, the settlers did not find it necessary to take orders from the Council.

By 1680, the colony had a large export industry of tobacco, [[lumber]], and [[Pitch (resin)|pitch]].

In 1691, dissent over the governance of the province led to the appointment of a deputy governor to administer the northern half of Carolina. After nearly a decade in which the British government sought to locate and buy out the proprietors, both Carolinas became [[crown colony|royal colonies]].

==Georgia==
The British colony of Georgia was founded by [[James Oglethorpe]] on February 12, 1733.<ref>{{cite web|title=This Day in Georgia History - February 1|url=http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/tdgh-feb/feb01.htm|access-date=13 November 2013}}</ref> The colony was administered by the [[Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America|Georgia Trustees]]  under a charter issued by and named for [[George II of Great Britain|King George II]]. The Trustees implemented an elaborate plan for the settlement of the colony, known as the  [[Oglethorpe Plan]], which envisioned an agrarian society of Yeoman farmers and prohibited slavery. In 1742 the colony was [[Invasion of Georgia (1742)|invaded by the Spanish]] during the [[War of Jenkins' Ear]].  In 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the [[Monarchy of the United Kingdom|Crown]], and Georgia became a [[Crown colony#History|Crown colony]], with a governor appointed by the king.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-816 |title=Trustee Georgia, 1732–1752 |publisher=Georgiaencyclopedia.org |date=July 27, 2009 |access-date=October 24, 2010}}</ref> The warm climate and swampy lands make it perfect for growing crops such as tobacco, rice, sugarcane, and indigo.

==Maryland==
George Calvert received a charter from [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]] to found the colony of [[Maryland]] in 1632. When George Calvert died, Cecilius Calvert, later known as Lord Baltimore, became the proprietor. Calvert came from a wealthy [[Catholic Church in the United States|Catholic]] family and was the first individual (rather than a joint-stock company) to receive a grant from the Crown. He received a grant for a large tract of land north of the [[Potomac River|Potomac river]] and on either side of [[Chesapeake Bay]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Browne|first= William Hand|date=1890|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9kwOAAAAIAAJ |title=George Calvert and Cecil Calvert: Barons Baltimore of Baltimore|place=New York|publisher= Dodd, Mead, and Company|isbn= 9780722290279}} p. 17</ref> Calvert planned on creating a haven for English Roman Catholics, many of whom were well-to-do nobles such as himself who could not worship in public.<ref name=Mary>{{cite web|url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108223.html|title=Maryland: History, Geography, Population, and State Facts|work=Info please|access-date=2011-01-17}}</ref> He planned on creating an [[Agrarianism|agrarian]] [[manorialism|manorial]] society where each noble would have a large manor and tenants would work in the fields and on other tasks. However, with extremely cheap land prices, many [[Protestantism|Protestants]] moved to Maryland and bought land for themselves. They soon became a majority of the population, and in 1642 religious tension began to erupt. Calvert was forced to take control and pass the [[Maryland Toleration Act]] in 1649, making Maryland the second colony to have freedom of worship, after [[Rhode Island]]. However, the Act did little to help religious peace. In 1654, Protestants barred Catholics from voting, ousted a [[William Stone (Maryland governor)|pro-tolerance Governor]], and repealed the Toleration Act.<ref name=tev5>{{cite book| last = Boyer| first = Paul S.| title = The Enduring Vision, 5th Edition| url = https://archive.org/details/enduringvision5thpaul| url-access = registration| publisher = [[Houghton-Mifflin]]| pages = [https://archive.org/details/enduringvision5thpaul/page/68 68–69] | year = 2004| isbn = 0-618-28065-0}}</ref> Maryland stayed Protestant until Calvert again took control of the colony in 1658.

==Virginia==
The '''Colony of [[Virginia]]''' (also known frequently as the '''Virginia Colony''' or the '''Province of Virginia''', and occasionally as the '''Dominion and Colony of Virginia''') was an [[English overseas possessions|English colony]] in [[North America]] which existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the [[American Revolution]] (as a [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] colony after 1707<ref>The Royal Government in Virginia, 1624-1775, Volume 84, Issue 1, Percy Scott Flippin, Wallace Everett Caldwell, p. 288</ref>). The name Virginia was first applied by [[Walter Raleigh|Sir Walter Raleigh]] and [[Elizabeth I|Queen Elizabeth I]] in 1584. '''[[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]]''' was the first town created by the Virginia colony. After the [[English Civil War]] in the mid 17th century, the Virginia Colony was nicknamed "The Old Dominion" by [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] for its perceived loyalty to the English monarchy during the era of the [[Commonwealth of England]].

While other colonies were being founded, Virginia continued to grow. Tobacco planters held the best land near the coast, so new settlers pushed inland. Sir William Berkeley, the colony's governor, sent explorers over the Blue Ridge Mountains to open up the back country of Virginia to settlement.

After independence from Great Britain in 1776 the Virginia Colony became the [[Virginia|Commonwealth of Virginia]], one of the original [[Thirteen Colonies|thirteen states]] of the United States, adopting as its official slogan "The Old Dominion". The states of [[West Virginia]], [[Kentucky]], [[Indiana]], [[Illinois]], and portions of [[Ohio]], were all later created from the territory encompassed earlier by the Colony of Virginia.

==See also==
*[[Middle Colonies]]
*[[Mid-Atlantic (United States)|Mid-Atlantic]]
*[[Chesapeake Colonies]]
*[[Colonial South and the Chesapeake]]
*[[Colonial history of the United States]]
*[[New England Colonies]]
*[[Confederate States of America]]
*[[South Atlantic states|South Atlantic States]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading ==
* Alden, John R.  ''The South in the Revolution, 1763–1789'' (LSU Press, 1957) [https://archive.org/details/southinrevolutio0000alde online]
* [[William J. Cooper Jr.|Cooper, William J.]], Thomas E. Terrill and Christopher Childers. ''The American South'' (2 vol. 5th ed. 2016), 1160 pp [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780394589480 online 1991 edition]
* Coclanis, Peter A. ''The Shadow of a Dream: Economic Life and Death in the South Carolina Low Country, 1670-1920'' (Oxford University Press, 1989). [https://books.google.com/books?id=v87QCwAAQBAJ&dq=Coclanis,+Peter+A.+The+Shadow+of+a+Dream:&pg=PR11 online]

* Craven, Wesley Frank. ''The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 1607–1689. '' (LSU, 1949) [https://archive.org/details/southerncolonies00wesl online]
* Edgar, Walter B. ed. ''The South Carolina Encyclopedia'' (University of South Carolina Press, 2006) [https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/ecms/colonial-period-1670-1764/?ecms-type=entry online].

* Ferris, William and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds. ''Encyclopedia of Southern Culture'' (1990) 1630pp; comprehensive coverage. 
** ''The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture'' (2013) in 25 volumes of about 400 pages each provides intense coverage. [https://www.amazon.com/New-Encyclopedia-Southern-Culture-Folk/dp/0807871745/ sample volume on "Folk Art"]

* Fraser Jr, Walter J. ''Patriots, pistols, and petticoats:" poor sinful Charles Town" during the American Revolution'' (Univ of South Carolina Press, 2022)  [https://books.google.com/books?id=hgytEAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 online].

* Gray, Lewis C. ''History of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860'' (2 vol. 1933) [https://archive.org/details/historyofagricul0001gray/page/n6/mode/1up vol 1 online];  .also see [https://archive.org/details/historyofagricul0000gray/page/n6/mode/1up vol 2 online]

* Hubbell, Jay B. ''The South in American Literature, 1607–1900'' (Duke UP, 1973) [https://archive.org/details/southinamericanl0000unse online]

* Kulikoff, Allan. ''Tobacco and slaves: The development of southern cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800'' (UNC Press Books, 2012) [https://books.google.com/books?id=taPqCQAAQBAJ&dq=Kulikoff&pg=PP1 online].

* McIlvenna, Noeleen. ''A Very Mutinous People: The Struggle for North Carolina, 1660-1713'' (Univ of North Carolina Press, 2009). [https://books.google.com/books?id=1GHm8rNAQh8C&pg=PP9 online]

* McIlvenna, Noeleen. ''Early American Rebels: Pursuing Democracy from Maryland to Carolina, 1640–1700'' (UNC Press Books, 2020) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZvXGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 online].

* Roller, David C. and Robert W. Twyman, eds. ''Encyclopedia of Southern History'' (1979) 1420 pp; comprehensive brief coverage of 3000 topics by 1000+ scholars. [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofso0000unse_d5d4 online]

* Sarson, Steven. ''The tobacco-plantation south in the early American Atlantic world'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

* Schlotterbeck, John. ''Daily Life in the Colonial South'' (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2013) [https://books.google.com/books?id=chTHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 online].

* Sutto, Antoinette. ''Loyal protestants and dangerous papists: Maryland and the politics of religion in the English Atlantic, 1630-1690'' (University of Virginia Press, 2015)  [https://books.google.com/books?id=s3d6CAAAQBAJ&pg=PT6 online].
* Tise, Larry E., and Jeffrey J. Crow. ''The Southern Experience in the American Revolution'' (UNC Press Books, 2017) [https://books.google.com/books?id=lX45DwAAQBAJ&dq=+Alden,+John+R.++%27%27The+South+in+the+Revolution,+1763%E2%80%931789%27%27+&pg=PT7 online]

* Vaughan, Alden T. "The origins debate: Slavery and racism in seventeenth-century Virginia." in ''The Atlantic Slave Trade.'' (Routledge, 2022) pp. 447-490.

===Primary sources===

* [[Ulrich Bonnell Phillips|Phillips, Ulrich B.]]  ''Plantation and Frontier Documents, 1649–1863; Illustrative of Industrial History in the Colonial and Antebellum South: Collected from MSS. and Other Rare Sources.'' 2 Volumes. (1909). [https://archive.org/details/plantationfronti01phil_0 vol 1 & 2 online edition] 716pp  


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[[Category:Colonial United States (British)]]
[[Category:Chesapeake Bay]]
[[Category:Province of Georgia]]
[[Category:Province of Maryland]]
[[Category:Colonial North Carolina]]
[[Category:Colonial South Carolina]]
[[Category:Colony of Virginia]]
[[Category:English colonization of the Americas]]
[[Category:History of the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:History of the Southern United States]]

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[[Category:Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:Former British colonies and protectorates in the Americas]]
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