United States History Student Edition

05

The Southern Colonies

Virginia and Maryland GUIDING QUESTION What challenges did Maryland and Virginia face?

READING STRATEGY Integrating Knowledge and Ideas As you read, take notes on the main facts about each of the Southern Colonies. Use a separate organizer for each colony.

The settlement of Jamestown in 1607 marked the beginning of English colonization in North America and of the Virginia Colony. After several difficult years, Virginia became sturdy and prosperous. Yet, as the following description suggests, the English recognized even greater potential for Virginia: “ Virginia is far from being arrived at that degree of perfection which it is capable of. Not a tenth of the land is yet cultivated: and that which is cultivated, is far from being so in the most advantageous manner. It produces, however, considerable quantities of grain and As Virginia began to grow, so did the demand for workers. It took a great deal of labor to plant, tend, and harvest the tobacco crop on which the colony depended. To obtain workers, white landowners purchased enslaved Africans and forced them to work in the tobacco fields. The first group of 20 Africans arrived in 1619 aboard a Dutch trading vessel. In the years to follow, many more ships carrying enslaved Africans under inhuman conditions would arrive in North America. The story of the first enslaved people who came to Virginia shows that not all people came to work in the colonies of their own free will. England also shipped criminals and prisoners of war to the colonies involuntarily . They could earn their release by working for a period of time—usually seven years. Many people also came to the colonies as indentured servants (ihn•DEHN•shuhrd SIR•vuhnts). To pay for their passage to America, they agreed to work without pay for a certain length of time. obtain to get involuntarily without choosing; against a person’s will indentured servant a person who pledges his or her labor for an amount of time in exchange for some payment cattle, and fruit of many kinds. ” — from Burnaby’s Travels in Virginia , 1759

Virginia

FLORIDA BENCHMARKS

• SS.8.A.2.4 • SS.8.A.2.7 • SS.8.A.3.15 • SS.8.E.2.1 • SS.8.E.3.1

• ELA.K12.EE.5.1 • ELA.K12.EE.6.1

» Cultivation of tobacco in colonial Virginia

PHOTO: North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy Stock Photo; TEXT: Burnaby, Andrew. “Burnaby’s Travels in Virginia, in 1759.” Virginia Historical Register and Literary Companion Vol. V, edited by William Maxwell. Copyright © 1852 by Macfarlane & Fergusson, Richmond.

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The English Colonies Are Settled and Grow