Colonies

Maryland

-First proprietary colony, which was based on a grant to Lord Baltimore. Proprietorship means that the proprietor has executive authority -Maryland was to serve as a haven for the English Catholics who suffered prosecution in England but few Catholics settled there. Many Protestants settled there because of the inexpensive land. -Founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore (Cecil Calvert) but the charter for founding was given in 1632. Lord Baltimore founded Maryland for financial profits and to create a refugee for his fellow Catholics -Maryland was the second plantation colony (but the fourth English colony). Originally, Lord Baltimore had hoped the colony would be a feudal domain. Huge estates were given to his Catholic relatives. But, just like in Virginia, colonists were more willing to come only if they were offered and opportunity to acquire land of their own. They soon were scattered around the Chesapeake region on modest farms rather than gracious manor houses that Lord Baltimore had envisioned. -At the beginning, Lord Baltimore allowed freedom of worship in hopes that he would than receive toleration for his own fellow worshipers. But consequently many Protestants threatened to submerge the Catholics and place severe restrictions on them just like in England. In 1649, the Act of Religious Toleration was passed granted it was only for the Christians. This Act of Religious Toleration guaranteed toleration to all Christians but decreed the death penalty to those that denied the divinity of Jesus (like the Jews and atheists). In 1654, with the Protestants with the majority, the act was repealed and a near civil war broke out. When Lord Baltimore returned to power in 1658, order was restored again. -Maryland depended a lot on tobacco and therefore forced labour. At first this was through white indentured servants but then turned to black slaves. -Tobacco was the main crop in Maryland and was extremely profitable for the colonies. Maryland had a society based on plantations due to the popularity of tobacco

Georgia

-Founded in 1733. Located between South Carolina and Florida, which was an important reason as to why the English obtained this piece of land. The two main purposes of the founding of Georgia was to serve as a place where debtors in prison could start a new life and it served as a barrier against any Spanish expansion from Florida (this is why the location was so important) -Georgia was to serve as a buffer to protect the more valuable Carolinas against the vindictive Spaniards in Florida and the vicious French in Louisiana. Georgia did suffer from this especially when the wars broke out between Spain and England in Europe. Since this colony was very vital to the imperial defense, the colony received financial grants from the British government at the start (the only one of the original thirteen to receive this at the beginning) -A group of philanthropists had formed Georgia (the most capable of the group and most well known was James Oglethorpe) with the intention of having little landholding and no slavery. But when the colony became a royal colony in 1752, plantations and slavery began to play a huge role in the Georgian economy. -Georgia was a proprietary colony; James Oglethorpe was the proprietor of Georgia but in 1755 Georgia officially became a royal colony and William Ewen was the first royal governor -Georgia's major crops were cotton, corn, tobacco, wheat, and peaches

Virginia

-In 1607 Jamestown was founded by John Smith and others, but the actual royal colony of Virginia was only founded in 1624 when it turned into a royal colony (Jamestown was included in Virginia) -Before it had become a royal colony, it was founded by the Virginia Company, a joint stock company -The colony was founded by the London Company in 1624 while King James I was ruling. King James I overrode the charter of the bankrupt Virginia Company -Jamestown was originally founded because of the desire to gain more wealth but they soon found out that it was not quite the money pit they were hoping for, especially seeing that the Virginia Company ended up Bankrupt -The colonial government of Virginia represented much of the structure in England's county courts -A royal governor appointed justices of peace, they set the tax rates and saw to the building and maintenance of public roads and bridges and such -Virginia was the first to come up with a bicameral pattern for government: The House of Burgesses (elected lower class) and an adopted Governor's council. This happened in the 1650s -The Anglican church was established in Virginia, this meant taxpayers paid for the support of the church whether or not they were a member -The major crops were tobacco, wheat, and corn -Some major problems was the fact that the Virginias early on never grew enough corn to last throughout the winter and then suffered many deaths. This was partially because they would grow more tobacco and then sell it make money and then hope that they would be able to buy food from someone else. Because of the lack of enough labour to make food they turned to forced labour and slavery

North and South Carolina

-Virginians first founded North Carolina in 1653. In 1653, some Virginians settled in the Carolinas but in 1670, King Charles II issued a royal charter to eight nobles to settle the area south of Virginia. They created Carolina and included the previous settlement. These eight nobles hoped to use Carolina to grow food in order to provide the sugar plantations in Barbados and to export non-English products like wine, silk, and olive oil. -Economy was linked to the English West Indies -Many of the settlers in Carolina had emigrated from Barbados and brought the slave system of Barbados with them. This established a very vigorous slave trade in Carolina. The settlers even asked for the help of the coastal Savannah Indians to search for captives to be used as slaves and sent down to the West Indian cane fields and sugar mills or to New England. The Manacled Indians were among the major exports of the colony. The Lords Proprietors, the eight nobles King Charles II granted Carolina to, protested against Indian slave trade in the Carolina but with no luck. -In 1707, the Savannah Indians decided to end the alliance with the Carolinians and migrate north to Maryland and Pennsylvania where they were promised better relations between the whites and the Native Americans. The Carolinians started many bloody raids that annihilated the Native American tribes in the coastal Carolina by 1710. -In 1712, North Carolina was separated formally from South Carolina -Rice and tobacco were major crops of the Carolinas