Life in the Southern Colonial colonies was considerably different than life in the Northern Colonies. Agriculture became the main industry in the South, and instead of major cities with large population there was sparse population centered upon huge plantations. Tobacco became the primary crop of the South and would become the primary source of income for the Southern Colonies. Agriculture in general is a labor intensive industry, and tobacco required a large labor force to produce the quantities needed. There were several different types of labor employed in the tobacco industry of the South from the beginning of the settlements up to the Revolutionary War.
At the top of the labor chain were the aristocrats who owned the large plantations. They considered themselves farmers and worked their property on a daily basis. However, most of their work was more administrative and managerial as they managed plantations that covered thousands of acres of land. In addition to the plantation owners there were yeoman farmers who owned and worked their own farms, on a much smaller scale than the plantation . Most of the labor force in the South consisted of indentured servants, and later, slaves.
Indentured servants were workers who contracted to work the fields for four or five years in return for passage to the colonies. Plantation owners would receive grants of additional land for every worker they had so it was profitable for them to contract indentured servants. This was the primary method of choice for most planters prior to the 1680’s . Slaves would replace the indentured servants by the late 1600’s partially because they were seen as a permanent resource, so there was no turn-over every five years. The slave trade began slowly in the middle of the seventeen century but grew rapidly until there were hundreds of thousands of slaves in the territories by the beginning of the Revolutionary War . Most slaves were brought from Africa and endured harsh treatment. They were bought and sold by their masters, lived under strict conditions, and even their offspring were considered property and were doomed to be slaves for life.
These labor groups had different experiences, naturally. The indentured servants that survived their term of service were given freedom, but many faced hardships as they tried to make a living on their own. The black slaves usually lived and died as slaves in the colonies. There were some free blacks in the South at the time. Some had been indentured servants, coming from the West Indies in the early 1600’s. Others were slaves who were freed by their masters. Unfortunately, the free blacks had it even rougher than the average white land owner. They had no rights in courts, could not vote, and were often kidnapped and sold back into slavery . This treatment of the African Americans would continue for over two centuries.
The Southern colonies were all started by different methods and for different reasons. This brought a variety of different settlers to the region, from debtors just released from prison, to individuals fleeing religious persecution. There was a wide economic gap between the large plantation owners and the average land owner. Many of the early inhabitants of the Southern Colonies were freed indentured servants from the North seeking a good life in the South. There were also major religions differences between many of the colonials. Maryland was originally established as a Catholic colony for Catholics fleeing persecution in England. However, labor needs led to the immigration of large numbers of Protestants which soon created a Catholic Minority in the colony. This actually led to the creation of one of the first legislative acts guaranteeing religious freedoms in the colonies . With the influx of indentured servants from England and the West Indies, immigration from other European nations, and the forced immigration of thousands of African slaves, the Southern colonies became a diverse mix of races and cultures that would help shape the melting pot that would become America.
References
UShistory.org. Free Aftican Americans in the Colonial Era. 2014. Online. 17 February 2016. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/6e.asp>.
—. Indentured Servants. 2014. Online. 17 February 2016. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/5b.asp>.
—. Life in the Plantation South. 2014. Online. 17 February 2016. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/5e.asp>.
—. Maryland - The Catholic Experiment. 2014. Online. 17 February 2016. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/5a.asp>.
—. The Growth of Slavery. 2014. Online. 17 February 2016. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/6c.asp>.
