ch.4, sec.3 – the southern colonies: plantations & slavery
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Ch.4, Sec.3 – The Southern Colonies: Plantations & Slavery. - the Southern Colonies were made up of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia . The Plantation Economy . Ch.4, Sec.3 – The Southern Colonies: Plantations & Slavery. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Ch.4, Sec.3 – The Southern Colonies: Plantations & Slavery
- the Southern Colonies were made up of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
Ch.4, Sec.3 – The Southern Colonies: Plantations & Slavery
The Plantation Economy
- the South’s fertile soil and almost year-round growing season was ideal to grow cash crops like tobacco, rice, and cotton
- transporting resources was very easy because of the many waterways
Ch.4, Sec.3 – The Southern Colonies: Plantations & Slavery
- the Southern Colonies didn’t have large cities like the New England & Middle Colonies because plantations had everything the families needed
- because plantations were mostly self-sufficient, large cities were not as common in the South – the only exception was Charles Town, South Carolina (Charleston)
Ch.4, Sec.3 – The Southern Colonies: Plantations & Slavery
- by the A.D. 1660s, the labor system in the Southern Colonies began to change as indentured white servants began to leave the plantations
- it was politically dangerous (like Bacon’s Rebellion) to keep White servants on their plantations
The Turn to Slavery
- therefore, landowners turned to African slaves
- by A.D. 1750, there were over 235,000 African slaves in America and 85% lived in the Southern Colonies
Ch.4, Sec.3 – The Southern Colonies: Plantations & Slavery
- African slaves were used to cultivate the rice fields in South Carolina & Georgia
- African slaves were also used to cultivate the indigo plant, which was introduced as a plantation crop by Eliza Lucas
Plantations Expand
Ch.4, Sec.3 – The Southern Colonies: Plantations & Slavery
- slave labor allowed the planter class to become very wealthy & powerful
- many gained political & economic control of the South and they ruled their plantations like tyrants
The Planter Class
Philip Ludwell William Byrd II
Ch.4, Sec.3 – The Southern Colonies: Plantations & Slavery
- overseers often forced slaves to work 15 hour days in the hot sun with backbreaking work and whipped them if they were not working hard enough
- many still tried to hold on to their African cultures (music, dances, religion)
Life Under Slavery
Ch.4, Sec.3 – The Southern Colonies: Plantations & Slavery
- many slaves fought against their enslavement through rebellions
- the Stono Rebellion in A.D. 1739 was one famous example of 20 slaves killing their owners (all were killed in battle or executed after capture)
Resistance to Slavery