Introduction to Chapter 3
3
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.
> What challenges faced early Chesapeake colonists?
> How did Chesapeake tobacco society take shape?
> Why did Chesapeake colonial society change in the late seventeenth century?
> Why did the southern colonies move toward a slave labor system?
> Conclusion: Why were export crops and slave labor important in the growth of the southern colonies?
Understanding the American Promise 3ePrinted Page 52