The Southern and Chesapeake Colonies

1. The Southern and Chesapeake Colonies Economic, Political and Social Characteristics

2. Economic Origins: The Virginia Company of London • The establishment of the Jamestown Colony – which is the eponymous event for the Virginia colony – was founded in 1607 for the purpose of economic gain. • The Virginia Company of London’s original charter makes this clear from the start. Their “license to make habitation” was granted by the Crown, but the stockholders in the joint stock venture sought profits.

3. Plantation Agriculture After a variety of failed endeavors, including ventures in cattle ranching, the enslavement and deportation of Native Americans, and plenty of efforts to mine for precious metals, the plantation system of agriculture was grudgingly established. Crops like rice, indigo, and tobacco were grown for export and enslaved labor or indentured servants were relied upon for a workforce.

4. Cash Crops: Rice, Indigo, and Tobacco Tobacco saved the Virginia Colony, but other crops were more common to the South. Eliza Lucas, an enterprising young woman in South Carolina, began to cultivate indigo as a dye for English markets. African slave labor was brought in in order to manage the rice fields in the deep South.

5. Subsistence Farming Most southerners did not own plantations or reap enormous profits from plantation agriculture. They were subsistence farmers and grew food crops exclusively. Crops included staples of the American diet like corn, peas, potatoes, and any other starchy, calorie rich food.

6. Hierarchical System: Wealthy, Noble Landowners, Poor Farmer Workers The original settlers of Jamestown were for the most part gentlemen and aristocrats in England – above working in the fields or common labor. The idea of a hierarchical society – where a rigid class structure existed and no social mobility was allowed – shaped Virginia society.

7. The Anglican Church Although the Anglican Church was important to Colonial American society, it was not the organizing focal point that the Puritan faith served for New England Colonies. More women joined the Church than men, and it usually was viewed as a softer version of government. By the late 18th Century, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists were recruiting members to their churches, too.

8. The Very Wealth and the Rest Plantation Agriculture Small Farmers Indentured Servants Enslaved Africans Wealthy Plantation owners grew rice, indigo, tobacco, and later cotton. They occupied much of the riverfront land and the navigation systems. Small farmers were a much larger part of the population. They owned land in the “backcountry” and usually focused on raising food crops.

9. Indentured Servants Indentured servants signed up for a four to seven year term of service, in exchange for their passage to the New World and the opportunity to acquire land. Most perished before they lived out their term from “seasoning” diseases = yellow fever and malaria for example. Conditions were often desperate.

10. Enslaved Africans The first enslaved people in the Americas were Indians; however, because their immune systems were compromised and their ability to escape bondage was high, English landowners soon sought other labor supplies. Indentured servants were one such source. Enslaved African labor, though, would soon became highly sought after. African laborers were not likely to succumb to diseases, and many African enslaved people had unique skill sets. The cultivation of rice, for example, was something that few Europeans knew anything about. Enslaved Africans knew how to grow the crop and harvest it.

11. The House of Burgesses The first representative democracy in the New World was the House of Burgesses in colonial Virginia. Elections were few and far between, and the delegates were not entirely “representative” of their constituents; however, it was a starting point.

12. Class Conflicts There were a handful of slave revolts in Colonial America, but more frequently, social conflicts emerged when poor, small farmers, found themselves in conflict with the decisions of the wealthy aristocrats. Divides emerged between the “tidewater gentry” and the “backcountry farmers.” Bacon’s Rebellion (Virginia, 1676) is an excellent example.

13. The Virginia Charter JOINT STOCK COMPANIES: MAKING MONEY FOR STOCKHOLDERS "That the said several Councils of and for the said several Colonies, shall and lawfully may, by Virtue hereof, from time to time, without any Interruption of Us, our Heirs or Successors, give and take Order, to dig, mine, and search for all Manner of Mines of Gold, Silver, and Copper, as well within any Part of their said several Colonies, as of the said main Lands on the Backside of the same Colonies; And to HAVE and enjoy the Gold, Silver, and Copper, to be gotten thereof, to the Use and Behoof of the same Colonies, and the Plantations thereof; YIELDING therefore to Us, our Heirs and Successors, the fifth Part only of all the same Gold and Silver.”

14. A Letter from Richard Frethorne

15. A Letter From Indentured Servant Richard Frethorne A Brief Expedition into the World of Primary Sources…

16. The Health of the Colony at Jamestown The health of the colony Jamestown was almost never robust. Between the contaminated water, the mosquito born illnesses, the poor diet, and the dysentery which spread from settlements upstream, few men survived in the long run at Jamestown.

17. The Military Defenses at Martin’s Hundred, Jamestown Frethorne states, “we are but 32 to fight against 3000 if they should come. And the nighest help we have is ten miles of us, and when the rogues overcame this place the last time, they slew 80 persons.”

18. “God is merciful and can save with few as well as with many, as he showed at Gilead.” Although Jamestown was probably the least religious of the colonies established in the New World, there is still an awful lot of fatalism in the language they use to describe their plight.

19. Richard Frethorne – Indentured Servant • His cloak was stolen by a fellow colonist. • He believes it was sold for butter and beef – and the man who did it, apparently, passed away. • The ration of food leaves him undernourished. “I do protest unto you that I have eaten more in one day at home than I have allowed me here for a week. You have given more than my day’s allowance to a beggar at the door.” • Goodman Jackson provided him with jack mackerel – better than peas and water gruel, he says.

20. Frethorne’s Wish List Oil Vinegar Butter Beef Cheese – old cheese packed tightly with cooper’s chips between every wheel, so that it keeps in the hot hold.

21. Urgency Good Father, do not forget me, but have mercy and pity my miserable case. I know if you did but see me, you would weep… For God’s sake, pity me… I have set down my resolution that certainly will be; that is, that the answer of this letter will be life or death to me. Therefore, good father, send as soon as you can.

22. Reliability It is likely that Richard Frethorne was both very young and very afraid in this environment. He certainly has every incentive to exaggerate the dangers of his living environment; nevertheless, nothing in this correspondence seems completely out of bounds historically. Most indentured servants perished before their time of service was ended. Disease killed many of them during what was called the “seasoning period” in the Chesapeake Colonies. Historians are not sure what became of Frethorne… but history was assuredly not on his side.