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The original 13 colonies of what became the United states of america of America tin can be divided geographically into the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. The Southern colonies were Maryland, Virginia, Northward Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They were located south of both the New England colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut) and the Center colonies (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware). The Southern colonies were noted for plantations, or large farms, and for the use of slaves to work on them.

The English language were the first Europeans to settle the Southern colonies. In 1606 an expedition of colonists sailed from England to the New World. The next year they established Jamestown Colony in what is now the country of Virginia. It was the first permanent English language settlement in America. Roman Catholics founded Maryland in 1634 as a religious refuge. Virginians somewhen moved south, into the Carolinas, and settled there about 1653. Charles Boondocks (at present Charleston, South Carolina), founded in 1670, was the first permanent English settlement in the province of Carolina. (Northward Carolina and South Carolina did not go separate provinces until 1712.)

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Establishment, Washington, D.C. (NPG.77.42)

Georgia was the last of the 13 colonies to be settled. British general James Oglethorpe founded the colony in 1733 as a haven for imprisoned debtors and the poor. The colony was also open up to persecuted Protestants from Germany and Republic of austria. Oglethorpe envisioned the Georgia colony equally a buffer separating the English colonies from the Spaniards in Florida and the French in Louisiana.

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Although most people of the Southern colonies were English, there were minor groups of Scots, Scotch-Irish, Germans, and others. The official religion of Virginia and the Carolinas was the Church of England (the Anglican church). Religion, though, never strongly swayed the people in the Southern colonies. As Baptist, Quaker, and Presbyterian immigrants arrived, they freely established their ain churches. Although Roman Catholics founded Maryland, they welcomed Protestants as well. Fifty-fifty after the English crown fabricated Anglicanism Maryland'south official religion in 1692, the colony remained tolerant of other religions. In Georgia, everyone merely Roman Catholics had religious freedom from the first.

The Southern colonies had a warm climate. Although the warm conditions helped spread disease, information technology also made for ideal farming conditions. Southerners institute that their economic success was tied to agronomics. Due south Carolina's land, for example, was suitable for rice and indigo. Virginia and Maryland specialized in tobacco. Southerners not but sold the crops throughout the colonies but also fabricated a large profit exporting them to England.

While nearly Southerners lived on small farms, some of the wealthier people established plantations for large-scale farming. Indentured servants and slaves did much of the piece of work on the plantations. Indentured servants had their passage paid to the New Globe but then had to work for a certain period of fourth dimension to pay off that debt. They more often than not worked from 4 to seven years, later which they became free. A large percentage of the white settlers in North America were indentured servants. Some owners of smaller farms likewise used indentured servants and slaves. However, those owners typically worked alongside their help while plantation owners did not.

The first Africans in the Americas arrived in Virginia in 1619. They had been on a Portuguese slave ship heading to Mexico. Two English privateers attacked the Portuguese ship and captured nigh 50 African men, women, and children. One of the English ships brought the Africans to Jamestown, where colonists purchased them. Records are express, but historians presume that the Africans were put to work on the tobacco harvest. It is possible that they were treated at first every bit indentured servants rather than as slaves.

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Meanwhile, the plantation owners were becoming dissatisfied with the indentured servant system. Information technology was getting harder to find people who would willingly choose to become indentured. In addition, the loss of indentured servants equally they fulfilled their contracts caused worker shortages. Plantation owners soon turned to slavery, which guaranteed permanent workers. Virginia legalized the do in 1661 and began relying on Africans for slave labor. As the plantations prospered, the demand for slaves increased. The import of enslaved Africans vastly increased the population of the Southern colonies. (See too Atlantic slave trade.)

The auction and export of cash crops brought nifty wealth to the plantation owners. With that wealth, they too gained political power. Soon the wealthiest owners began to dominate the local regime. Smaller landowners mostly supported them. (See also the South.)