4-3
The Southern Colonies
Ø The
economy of the Southern Colonies relied heavily on slave labor.
Ø The
existence of slavery deeply affected the South and the nation.
ONE AMERICAN'S STORY
George Mason was born
to a wealthy
A VOICE
FROM THE PAST
My father had among his slaves
carpenters, coopers [barrel makers], sawyers, blacksmiths, tanners, curriers,
shoemakers, spinners, weavers and knitters, and even a distiller. . . . His
woods furnished timber and plank for the carpenters and coopers, and charcoal
for the blacksmith; his cattle killed for his own consumption and for sale
supplied skins for the tanners, curriers, and shoemakers, and his sheep gave
wool and his fields produced cotton and flax for the weavers and spinners, and
his orchards fruit for the distiller.
George Mason, quoted in Common Landscape of
Because the Masons
and other wealthy landowners produced all that they needed on their own
plantations, they appeared to be independent. But their independence usually
depended on the labor of enslaved Africans. Although planters were only a small
part of the Southern population, the plantation economy and slavery shaped life
in the Southern Colonies:
The
The South's
soil and almost year-round growing season were ideal for plantation crops like
rice and tobacco. These valuable plants required much labor to produce, but
with enough workers they could be grown as cash crops. Planters had no trouble
transporting their crops because the region's many waterways made it easy for
oceangoing ships to tie up at plantation docks.
Like George Mason's
boyhood home, most plantations were largely self-sufficient. That is, nearly
everything that planters, their families, and their workers needed was produced
on the plantation. Because plantations were so self-sufficient, large cities
like those in the North were rare in the Southern Colonies. The port city of
As the plantation
economy continued to grow, planters began to have difficulty finding enough
laborers to work their plantations. Toward the end of the 1600s, the planters
began to turn to enslaved Africans for labor.
The Turn to
Slavery
For the first half of
the 1600s, there were few Africans in
As Bacon's Rebellion
showed, it was also politically dangerous for planters to try to keep them
there. As a result, the landowners had to find another source of labor. Planters
tried to force Native Americans to work for them. But European diseases caused
many Native Americans to die. Those who survived usually knew the country well
enough to run away. To meet their labor needs, the planters turned to enslaved
Africans.
As a result, the
population of people of African descent began to grow rapidly. By 1750, there
were over 235,000 enslaved Africans in
Plantations
Expand
The growth of slavery
allowed plantation farming to expand in
Enslaved workers drained swamps, raked fields,
burned stubble, and broke ground before planting. They also had to flood,
drain, dry, hoe, and weed the same fields several times before the harvest.
The cultivation of
rice required not only backbreaking labor but also considerable skill. Because West
Africans had these skills, planters sought out slaves who came from
On higher ground,
planters grew indigo, a plant that yields a deep blue dye. A young woman named Eliza
Lucas had introduced indigo as a successful plantation crop after her father
sent her to supervise his
The Planter
Class
Slave labor allowed
planters, such as the Byrd family of
Small landowners with
just one or two slaves simply could not compete. Many gave up their land and moved
westward. As a result, the powerful planter class gained control of the rich
land along the coast. The planter class was relatively small compared to the
rest of the population. However, this upper class soon took control of
political and economic power in the South. A foreign traveler in the South
commented that the planters "think and act precisely as do the nobility in
other countries."
Some planters,
following the traditions of nobility, did feel responsible for the welfare of
their enslaved workers. Power, they believed, brought with it the
responsibility to do good. Many planters, though, were
tyrants. They held complete authority over everyone in their households.
Planters frequently used violence against slaves to enforce their will.
Life under Slavery
On large Southern plantations, slaves toiled
in groups of about 20 to 25 under the supervision of overseers. Overseers were
men hired by planters to watch over and direct the work of slaves. Enslaved
persons performed 
strenuous and
exhausting work, often for 15 hours a day at the peak of the harvest season. If
slaves did not appear to be doing their full share of work, they were often
whipped by the overseer.
Enslaved people
usually lived in small, one-room cabins that were furnished only with sleeping
cots. For a week's food, a slave might receive only around a quarter bushel of
corn and a pound of pork. Some planters allowed their slaves to add to this
meager ration by letting them raise their own potatoes, greens, fruit, or
chicken.
In spite of the
brutal living conditions, Africans preserved many customs and beliefs from
their homelands. These included music, dances, stories, and, for a time,
African religions-including Islam. African kinship customs became the basis of
African-American family culture. A network of kin was a source of strength even
when families were separated.
Resistance
to Slavery
At the same time that
enslaved Africans struggled to maintain their own culture, they fought against
their enslavement. They sometimes worked slowly, damaged goods, or purposely
carried out orders the wrong way. A British traveler in 1746 noted that many
slaves pretended not to understand tasks they often had performed as farmers in
A VOICE
FROM THE PAST
‘You
would really be surpriz'd at their Perseverance; let
an hundred Men shew him how to hoe, or drive a
wheelbarrow, he'll still take the one by the Bottom, and the other by the
Wheel; and they often die before they can be conquer'd.”
Edward
Kimber, quoted in White over Black
At times, slaves
became so angry and frustrated by their loss of freedom that they rose up in
rebellion. One of the most famous incidents was the Stono Rebellion. In September 1739, about 20 slaves
gathered at the
Stono and similar
revolts led planters to make slave codes even stricter. Slaves were now
forbidden from leaving plantations without permission. The laws also made it
illegal for slaves to meet with free blacks. Such laws made the conditions of
slavery even more inhumane.
The Southern
Colonies' plantation economy and widespread use of slaves set the region on a
very different path from that of the