Reason for Colonizing
The first successful English settlement was in the Southern Region. It was started by the Virginia Company who invested in the colony in hopes to make a profit. Although not much actual gold was found in the area, the Virginia Company as long as others who settled in this region saw an opportunity to gain huge amounts of wealth by cultivating and growing cash crops. The area along the coasts of these colonies were especially suited to growing, harvesting, & shipping these cash crops to the coast and selling to the world. The coastal regions had flat land, fertile soil, the perfect climate & deep, slow moving rivers which made transporting goods a simple task. In the south, it was all about making money & there was little concern with anything other than wealth. |
Climate
The southern colonies were the warmest of the 3 regions. Winters were mild with little snow and summers were hot & humid and were perfect for growing crops. In some areas, the long growing season often allowed the settlers to grow several crops throughout the year. The only negative about the climate was that disease spread more rapidly in the area because of the hot/humid temperatures. Average Temperature in July = 88 Average Temperature in January = 40 Average Snowfall per year = 5 inches |
Geography & Soil
The southern colonies rested between the Atlantic Ocean & the Appalachian Mts. & the foothills. Along the coast, the land was called the Low Country & it was a low sea level and was very flat. This region had wide, deep & slow moving rivers that were easy to navigate & made it easy to transport goods. Moving westward, into the region, the land began to rise to a higher elevation and rolling hills were the predominant feature. The area where the higher land falls to the lower land was called the fall line. The rivers west of the fall line were very rough, shallow & rocky, so it was much more difficult to sail up & down. This limited the wealth of the people who lived in the Back Country as it was known. The soil in the majority of the region, especially the Low Country was very fertile which made growing cash crops. It allowed the plantation system to quickly take root & become the “southern way of life”. |
Use of Slaves
The growing of cash crops takes a huge amount of labor & planters wanted to find the cheapest labor possible which they saw in slavery. The south had the largest slave population and most of those slaves worked on the many plantations in the Low Country. Although slaves may have been working in a home or business, most slaves worked in the fields planting, harvesting, & processing the cash crop which was being grown on the plantation on which they served. |
Religion
The Southern Colonies were not dominated by a single religion & the religious climate was very different in the south. This was mainly due to the fact that the southern economy was based on agriculture. Having a large plantation meant that homes were spread out far from one another. Unless you lived in one of the coastal marketing towns, like Charles Town, it was not likely that you would travel even 15 miles to get to a church. A horse & buggy typically travelled 5 mph which means that a 15 mile journey would take 3 hours and it would be impolite for a proper southern lady dressed in her Sunday best to hop on the back of a horse. For this reason, most of the settlers in the south worshipped on their own which meant a much more relaxed attitude about religion & church attendance.
The Southern Colonies were not dominated by a single religion & the religious climate was very different in the south. This was mainly due to the fact that the southern economy was based on agriculture. Having a large plantation meant that homes were spread out far from one another. Unless you lived in one of the coastal marketing towns, like Charles Town, it was not likely that you would travel even 15 miles to get to a church. A horse & buggy typically travelled 5 mph which means that a 15 mile journey would take 3 hours and it would be impolite for a proper southern lady dressed in her Sunday best to hop on the back of a horse. For this reason, most of the settlers in the south worshipped on their own which meant a much more relaxed attitude about religion & church attendance.
Economy The Southern economy was almost entirely based on farming & cash crops. Most of the wealthy successful plantations were in the Low Country along the Atlantic coast. Those plantations grew a variety of crops depending on which colony you were in. Virginia & Maryland concentrated their efforts on tobacco while the South Carolina & Georgia Low Country concentrated on rice & indigo which is a plant that produces a blue dye. North Carolina grew a variety of crops. These people became the “rich & famous” of the South and being a plantation owner was a very prestigious and respected position in society. Most decisions that were made politically were to the benefit of the plantation owners and they enjoyed the privileges that come with great wealth. At the same time, common yeoman farmers, who worked smaller tracts of land in the Back Country still had great success growing crops. They struggled however with transporting those crops to the market since they lived west of the fall line. So, although their land had fertile soil, they were limited because they could not sell their crops. Dense forests also brought revenue: the wood, tar and resin from the longleaf pine provided some of the best shipbuilding materials in the world. The tar & resin from the pine tree was used to seal the wood on ships and make them water tight. Barrels of pine tar were purchased by every sailor in the world. |
Daily Life
Daily life in the Southern colonies varied a great deal depending on if you lived in the Low Country or the Back Country & what your social status in life was. All in all though, life revolved around plantations and farms. There were few cities, each colony having maybe one or possibly two along the Atlantic coast. Living on a plantation in the south was much like living on a small town. The plantation was self-sufficient meaning that almost everything that was needed on the plantation was either grown, raised or made on the plantation by one of the many slaves. Plantations were usually hundreds of acres and included a mansion for the planter & his family called the main house. There was a kitchen, storehouses, barns, smokehouse, laundry, and slave quarters to house the slaves. Anything not produced on the plantation could easily be purchased by the plantation owner because of the massive amounts of money he would make. The plantation owners stood at the head of society and they held all of the political power which typically meant what they wanted got accomplished. Life for a plantation owner and his family was all about wealth, elegance, reputation & showing off. As a wife or child of a plantation owner, it was your obligation and usually your desire to uphold the family’s name and reputation. Of course, the reward for doing so was living a life of great luxury. In the Back Country, life revolved around taking care of your family’s needs & survival, but it still meant long hours in the field. They were hard workers and certainly did not enjoy the social acceptance, wealth & luxury of the plantation owners, but the soil still provided for their families. Their lives were much simpler with simple homes, clothing, etc. |