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THE SOUTHERN COLONIES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

1601–1700

> What were the most important factors that shaped Britain’s southern colonies in the seventeenth century? This chapter examines the establishment and growth of England’s southern mainland colonies in North America over the course of the seventeenth century. It explores the early years of the Virginia colony, the rise of tobacco culture in the Chesapeake and its impact on the region’s social and political environment, colonial relations among different groups of people, and the development of African slavery as the dominant labor force in the South.