Chapter 4: The Colonial Period

TIMELINE

1558	Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England
1585	Roanoke Colony founded
1607	Jamestown founded
1612	John Rolfe perfects tobacco raising
1619	First slaves brought to the colonies  •  Virginia House of Burgesses established
1620	Mayflower Compact signed  •  Plymouth Colony founded
1622	First Anglo-Powhatan War takes place
1624	Virginia becomes a royal colony  •  Dutch permanently settle New Netherlands
1630	Massachusetts Bay Colony founded by Puritans
1634	Maryland founded by Lord Baltimore
1636	Rhode Island established by Roger Williams  •  Harvard College founded to educate young ministers
1637	Pequot Wars take place
1643	New England Confederation established
1644	Second Anglo-Powhatan War takes place
1649	Maryland Act of Toleration passed
1664	England captures New York City from the Dutch
1675	King Philip’s War occurs
1676	Bacon’s Rebellion occurs
1681	Pennsylvania established by William Penn
1686	Dominion of New England created under the leadership of Sir Edmund Andros
1691	Massachusetts Bay Colony becomes a royal colony
1692	Salem Witch Trials take place
1693	William and Mary College founded
1696	Barbados Slave Codes of 1661 adopted by South Carolina
1702	New Jersey becomes a royal colony
1703	Delaware granted an assembly by the crown
1712	North Carolina officially separates from South Carolina
1733	Georgia founded by James Oglethorpe

IMPORTANT PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS, AND CONCEPTS

Anglo-Powhatan Wars

Barbados Slave Codes

Great Migration

Mayflower Compact

William Penn

Separatists

Wampanoag Indians

Nathaniel Bacon

William Berkeley

Jamestown

Metacom/King Philip

Plymouth

John Smith

John Winthrop

Bacon’s Rebellion

Dominion of New England

Lost Colony

New England Confederation

John Rolfe

Peter Stuyvesant

Roger Williams

Lord Baltimore

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

Maryland Act of Toleration

James Oglethorpe

Salem Witch Trials

Virginia House of Burgesses

“I marvel not a little … that since the first discovery of America … that we of England could never have the grace to set fast footing in such fertile and temperate places are left as yet unpossessed by them [the Spanish and Portuguese]. But … I conceive great hope that the time approacheth and now is that we of England may share and part stakes [divide] (if we will ourselves) both with the Spaniards and the Portuguese in part of America and other regions as yet undiscovered.”

—Richard Hakluyt, 1582

INTRODUCTION

When the British decided to join the Spanish and Portuguese in the exploration of the New World, little did they know that they were planting the seeds for a future world power. As 16th-century English scholar Richard Hakluyt indicated, there still existed in the New World vast expanses of land that had not been claimed by the colonial powers. These areas lay north of the Florida border and extended into Canada. The British heeded Hakluyt’s advice and ventured into these unclaimed areas to meet the challenges of national greatness, to bring gold to the crown, and to spread Christianity.

There were many reasons why the time was right for the British to become involved in empire building:

•  The defeat of the Spanish Armada by the British in 1588 marked the beginning of the decline of Spain as a world power and its domination in North America. It also sparked a feeling of nationalism within England and signaled the beginning of English domination of the seas. The decline in Spanish presence and the growing control of the Atlantic Ocean by the British encouraged investors and adventurers to come to the New World.

•  The British population had been steadily growing, reaching about 4.5 million by 1600. This created widespread economic hardship. The New World presented a greater opportunity for many to acquire land and wealth.

•  Because of the movement of enclosing land for sheep grazing, many farmers became tenants, working the land for landlords. For tenant farmers living in poverty, the New World offered them economic relief and the possibility of owning their own land.

•  An economic depression in the wool industry in England in the 1550s led to overcrowding of the cities and jails with job seekers and debtors.

•  By the 1600s, the British difficulties with the Irish ended. The battle between the Catholic Irish and the Protestant Queen Elizabeth ended in the crushing defeat of the Irish. This allowed the crown to concentrate on overseas exploration.

•  Existence of old feudal laws such as primogeniture, by which only the firstborn son could inherit the family wealth, encouraged many young men to seek their fortunes in the New World, where land was plentiful and wealth could be accumulated.

•  The British were seeking markets for their goods, as well as resources to furnish British industries.

•  The Protestant Reformation and Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church gave rise to a religious conflict. This led people to the New World in search of religious freedom.

•  The new type of business organization called the joint stock company provided the financial support for these ventures in the New World. An organization in which investors pooled their money for a share of the profits, the joint stock company was responsible for the settlements of Jamestown and Plymouth.

EARLY COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS

The British government granted charters for the purpose of establishing colonies in the New World. There were basically three types of colonies established. A proprietary colony was owned by a person or group who appointed the governor for the colony, while aroyal colony was controlled by the crown, with the governor appointed by the crown. Self-governing colonies chose their own governors but still functioned under the auspices of the king.

Jamestown

The first attempt to establish an English colony in the New World was made in 1583 by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in the area of Newfoundland, but it was unsuccessful. Another attempt was made in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh off the coast of Virginia on Roanoke Island. Dubbed “The Lost Colony,” the settlement seemingly disappeared around 1591.

In 1606, the Virginia Company of London, a joint stock company, received a charter from James I to settle in the New World. The most significant aspect of the charter was that the English settlers were guaranteed to have the same rights in the New World as they would have enjoyed in England. Most of those who left England to voyage to the New World were single men who were seeking gold and the elusive passage to the East Indies.

On May 24, 1607, 100 men left for the New World from England. Only 60 arrived in Jamestown, where they faced disease, malnutrition, starvation, and attacks from Native Americans. The colony was saved when Captain John Smith took command, forcing the men to work for food.

Some of the hostility between the Native Americans and the settlers diminished through the efforts of Pocohantas, the daughter of Powhatan, who reportedly saved John Smith from death at the hands of the Native Americans. (She later married John Rolfe, who would later perfect the raising of tobacco.)

In 1610, the British crown sent Lord De La Warr to deal with the continuing Native American “problem.” The First Anglo-Powhatan War was fought in 1622, and the Powhatans were harshly treated by the English. In 1644, the Powhatan tribe lost their lands to the settlers in the Second Anglo-Powhatan War. The Indians were segregated from the white population of the colony. By 1685, the Powhatan tribe was virtually extinct due to disease and their inability to unite against the settlers. In the settlers’ minds, the Native Americans were expendable.

Plymouth Colony

It was against the backdrop of the Protestant Reformation and Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church in the 1530s that Plymouth Colony was founded. There were some in English society who wanted the Church of England to be cleansed or purified of Roman Catholic rituals.

In 1608, a group of Separatist Puritans left England for Holland, where they hoped to practice their religion without the threat of James I. However, they were dissatisfied with life in Holland because they feared their children were becoming “Dutchified,” and they negotiated with the Virginia Company of London for a charter and passage to the New World. Leaving Plymouth, England, with 102 people aboard the Mayflower, the Separatists came to the New World with their families and strong religious beliefs. Before disembarking, 41 male adults aboard the ship signed a compact (agreement) in which they agreed to follow the rules set by the majority. The Mayflower Compact was not a constitution; rather it was an agreement for cooperation among the participants. John Carver was elected as the first governor of Plymouth. Upon Carver’s death a year later, William Bradford became governor and served until 1657.

By 1621, unlike Jamestown with its more negative experience, Plymouth Colony was a thriving community with a bountiful harvest and a decent relationship with the Native Americans. The Wampanoag Indians had befriended the New England colonists with the help of Squanto, a Native American. Massasoit, the chieftain of the Wampanoag Indians, signed a treaty of friendship with the Plymouth Puritans in 1621. However, during the Great Migration of the 1630s, the demand for land and food by the settlers strained their relations with the Native American tribes.

SOUTHERN COLONIES

Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia formed the Southern colonies of the British Empire.

Virginia

Growing out of the Jamestown settlement founded by the Virginia Company of London, Virginia was a proprietary colony until 1624, when it became a royal colony. Characterized by a warm climate and fertile soil, Virginia became the leading producer of tobacco in the colonies. John Rolfe perfected tobacco growing by 1612, turning Virginia into a one-crop economy. Because tobacco depleted the soil of its nutrients, the colonists searched for more land to grow their crop, increasing the tension between the Native Americans and the colonists.

The growth of tobacco also increased the need for labor. The headright system was developed to encourage people to come to Virginia. Under this system, 50 acres of land were given to any person who paid for the passage of another to Virginia. This resulted in large grants of land being given to those who could afford to pay the passage for others to the New World. Thus, an extensive number of people came to the New World as indentured servants. These people would negotiate a contract with a person before they left Europe. The patron paid the passage of the indentured servant to the New World, and in return, the indentured person agreed to work for the patron for a specified period of time, usually three to seven years. Upon completion of those years, the servant received from the patron freedom and, in rare circumstances, a grant of land. By 1700, there were over 100,000 indentures in the New World, and approximately three-quarters of all those who immigrated to Virginia and Maryland were indentured.

In 1670, the Virginians reassessed their desire to use indentured servants. In 1676, a group of freedmen led by Nathaniel Bacon, many of them former indentured servants, protested the Native American policies of longtime Virginia governor William Berkeley. They felt that Berkeley’s policy toward the Indians was too lenient and that his policies hurt the lives of freedmen and disrupted the fur trade. The rebellion eventually ended when Nathaniel Bacon died from illness. However, the colonists began to fear indentured servants and turned to African slaves for their labor needs. Although the Dutch had sold the first Africans in Virginia in 1619, Bacon’s Rebellion helped turn the tide toward large-scale slavery in Virginia.

Concentrated mostly in the sugarcane fields of Barbados, African slavery developed slowly in the English colonies. By the 1650s, the majority of the population of Barbados consisted of African slaves, as compared to only approximately 3 percent of the Chesapeake populations. With the development of tobacco as the chief source of economic wealth in Virginia and the reduction in the number of indentured servants, Virginia began importing slaves, mostly from the West Indies. By 1700, the slave population of Virginia was five times higher than it was in 1670. By 1750, almost half of Virginia’s population was comprised of slaves.

The Virginia House of Burgesses, organized in 1619 to run Virginia’s government, was comprised of burgesses (representatives to the House) who were elected by male landholders to represent the interests of the colonists. This rudimentary beginning of representative democracy was controlled by the influential large landowners, among them the family of George Washington.

Maryland

The fourth colony founded in the New World was Maryland. It was settled by Lord Baltimore in 1634 as a proprietary colony and a haven for Catholics. Like Virginia, Maryland employed the headright system.

As the colony developed, a large number of Protestants arrived. Due to fears that this growing number would thwart religious freedom for the Catholics, the Maryland Act of Toleration was passed in 1649. Under its provisions, Maryland offered religious toleration to all Christians but declared that the death penalty would be used as punishment for any person who denied the divinity of Jesus. In effect, this denied religious freedom to Jews and atheists. It was eventually repealed. At the time of the American Revolution, Maryland had more Catholics than any other colony.

Carolina

Granted by royal decree in 1663 and named for Charles I, Carolina was established as a proprietary colony for the purpose of supplying food to the sugar plantations in Barbados and silk, wine, and olive oil to England. However, the warm and humid climate of Carolina was unsuitable for the production of these goods. Charles Town (Charleston), founded in 1670, became the leading port city of the South.

Rice became the cash crop of Carolina, in addition to indigo. Both increased the need for labor, most of which was obtained from Africa. Many of the African slaves were experienced in growing rice in their own countries and seemed to be resistant to malaria, a deadly disease carried by mosquitoes.

In 1696, Carolina officially adopted the Barbados Slave Codes of 1661. Originally passed by the British to control the slaves on the West Indian plantations in Barbados, these harsh rules placed the slave completely under the control of the master. These codes became the basis of the type of chattel (property) slavery that developed in the colonies. By the early 1700s, African slaves outnumbered whites in Carolina.

North Carolina

Because of the many large plantations that had developed in Carolina, smaller farmers moved northward in search of land. This northern migration led to the establishment of the colony of North Carolina, which was officially separated from South Carolina in 1712. Characterized by an independent spirit, North Carolina was considered to be irreligious and defiant. The more rugged mountain terrain led to the development of smaller farms, producing a less aristocratic society than those of neighboring Virginia and South Carolina. There was also less need for slave labor. This spirit of independence served as an impetus for resistance to British authority in the 1770s.

Georgia

Founded in 1733, Georgia was the last English colony founded in the New World. James Oglethorpe, an Englishman interested in prison reform, sought to create a refuge for imprisoned debtors. The king granted a proprietary charter to Oglethorpe and also funded part of the establishment of Georgia to create a defensive buffer against both the Spanish in Florida and the French in Louisiana. Georgia was the only colony to receive this type of funding.

Savannah grew as another urban center in the South, and Georgia provided religious toleration to all Christians except for Catholics. Georgia had fewer slaves than its Southern counterparts.

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

Founded as a refuge for religious zealots, the New England colonies developed a distinct character throughout the 1600s and 1700s. Beginning with the founding of Plymouth Colony by the Pilgrim Separatists in 1620, the development of these colonies was marked by growth in education, thriving economies, and less demand for slavery.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Known as the “Bible Commonwealth,” Massachusetts Bay was founded by Puritans who desired to reform the Church of England from within and to practice their religion freely. The Puritans left England in 1630 with a royal charter that allowed them to establish a colony in the New World. This charter differed from other royal charters in that the Puritans could determine the headquarters of the Massachusetts Bay Company. As a result, the headquarters was established in the New World away from the watchful eye of the crown.

During the Great Migration of 1630s, over 70,000 people left England for the New World. Many of these settlers were prosperous and well educated. They came with their families to establish new homes in a colony that many viewed as a new religious experiment.

John Winthrop served as the colony’s first governor, establishing a theocracy (church-state) there. Membership in the Puritan’s essentially Calvinist church was extremely important in that only freemen who belonged to a Puritan congregation could vote in colonial matters. Only “visible saints” (people whose behavior demonstrated God had saved them) were allowed membership in the church, as stressed by Calvinist doctrine. Religious leaders such as John Cotton believed that government existed to enforce God’s law. These religious leaders wielded great power, although the congregation did have the ability to hire and fire their ministers and to set their salaries.

The Puritans believed in hard work as a way to fulfill God’s will for them. This idea would develop into what has become known as the “Protestant ethic” in America, whereby hard work is encouraged within the society. However, not all agreed with this religious doctrine. In 1638, Anne Hutchinson was banished from the colony when she challenged the belief that a holy life was a sign of salvation.

New Englanders, at this time, were generally superstitious and often blamed their misfortunes on people whom they believed were possessed by the devil. In Massachusetts, a person found guilty of being a witch was subject to death. In 1692, the Salem Witch Trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts. Several adolescent girls from Salem accused a number of older women of casting spells. Many of the accused were members of prominent Salem families, leading some historians to conclude that class differences may have been involved in some of the accusations. In all, 20 women and men were killed as a result of these superstitions.

Rhode Island

Salem minister Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts Bay for his support of a complete break from the Church of England and his disagreement with the colony’s policy of no compensation for land acquired from the Native Americans. Williams also believed that there was no place for the church in matters of the state. He contended that civil government should not interfere in religious matters. This belief in the separation of church and state became a cornerstone of the American Constitution in 1787. Rhode Island enacted simple manhood suffrage with no property qualifications until several years after its founding.

In 1644, Rhode Island received a charter from Parliament, becoming a colony known for its freedom of opportunity and separation of church and state. Ironically, in spite of their independent outlook, Rhode Islanders became the leading importers of African slaves to the colonies.

Connecticut

In 1662, Connecticut became a royal colony when Hartford, New Haven, and other smaller colonies along the Connecticut River merged. Hartford was founded in 1635 by Thomas Hooker, a Boston Puritan. New Haven was founded by discontented Massachusetts Bay Puritans in 1638. In 1639, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was drafted, becoming the first written constitution in the New World. Provisions of these Fundamental Orders were incorporated into the Connecticut State Constitution after the Revolutionary War. Connecticut was also known for its blue laws, which dictated how people should behave.

New Hampshire

Absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1641, New Hampshire was granted a royal charter in 1679. New Hampshire, along with the rest of New England, boasted fishing, shipbuilding, and a fur trade as its economic mainstays.

NEW ENGLAND AND COLONIAL UNITY

One of the most important contributions of the New England colonies to the development of an American nation was their early attempt at colonial unity. Spurred by their problems with Native Americans, the colonies, with the help of the crown, attempted to unify for defensive purposes.

The New England Confederation

In 1637, the Pequot Indians attacked the settlers along the Connecticut River. The English responded with the virtual slaughter of the Pequot tribe. A shaky peace existed between the settlers and the Native Americans after this incident, but the concern over problems with Native Americans led to the establishment of the New England Confederation in 1643. Its purpose was to establish a colonial defense, against not only the Native Americans but also the Dutch and the French. This marked the first attempt at any intercolonial cooperation.

By 1675, the Indians attempted to unify under Massosoit’s son, Metacom, whom the settlers called King Philip. Metacom coordinated attacks against New England villages but was eventually defeated by the British.

The Dominion of New England

In 1686, the British Crown coerced the colonies into another form of intercolonial union called the Dominion of New England. Led by Sir Edmund Andros, the Dominion restricted town meetings; controlled the courts, press, and schools; and revoked land titles. It also taxed the colonies without the consent of their elected assemblies and enforced the Navigation Acts.

However, during 1688–1689, James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution and replaced by William and Mary. Aware of the limitation of their power, William and Mary implemented the policy of salutary neglect, wherein the British Crown ignored the violations of British trade policies by the colonists. This resulted in a decrease of the English government’s involvement with the colonies. The Dominion collapsed, and Massachusetts Bay became a royal colony in 1691.

THE MIDDLE COLONIES

Set between industrious, independent-minded, and church-dominant New England and the cash-crop-based, aristocratic Southern society, the Middle Colonies shared characteristics of both.

New York

In 1623–1624, the Dutch West India Company created the first Dutch permanent settlement in New Netherlands with the purchase of Manhattan Island from the Indians. A diverse area, New Netherlands had a large aristocratic contingent. New Netherlands boasted of patroonships, large estates along the Hudson River, which were given to promoters who agreed to settle 50 people in these areas. The Dutch government sent in their military under the command of Peter Stuyvesant, who successfully secured the colony for the Dutch. However, in 1664, Charles II gave a land grant of this area to his brother, the Duke of York, and sent a British squadron to secure the grant. Stuyvesant surrendered to the British.

New York remained under the influence of large landowners and, therefore, had a sizable aristocratic class. It was, however, a very cosmopolitan area through which many immigrants entered the New World.

Pennsylvania

In the mid-1660s, a group of religious dissenters known as the Quakers sprang up in England. This “religious society of friends” questioned both religious and civil authority, refused to support the Church of England, and practiced pacificism, the nonviolent means of achieving goals. William Penn embraced the Quaker faith and petitioned the king for a place these Quakers could settle so as to practice their beliefs freely.

In 1681, Penn received a large land grant from the king as settlement for a payment of money that the crown owed his deceased father. Pennsylvania (Penn’s Woodland) attracted settlers with its liberal land policies and high tolerance for differences among people. It also enjoyed a friendly relationship with the Indians due to compensatory land policies. Philadelphia, a leading urban center and known as the “City of Brotherly Love,” became the meeting place from which the American Revolution was born.

New Jersey

In 1664, the Duke of York granted an area of land southwest of New York to two noble proprietors. It was named New Jersey after the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel. Settled by a large number of New Englanders seeking suitable land, as well as Quakers seeking refuge, West New Jersey was sold by one of the proprietors to Quakers in 1674. East New Jersey also eventually was acquired by the Quakers; the crown combined the two areas in 1702 and established New Jersey as a royal colony.

Delaware

Made up of three counties and founded by Swedes, Delaware remained under the control of the governor of Pennsylvania until the American Revolution. Named in honor of Lord De La Warr, the military governor of Jamestown who had dealt with the Powhatans in 1610, Delaware eventually was given the right to establish its own assembly in 1703.

SUMMARY

Geographical conditions, motivations for settlement, and religious values contributed to the variety of political, social, and economic developments within the British colonies in America. As intercolonial trade developed and the British government implemented a policy of salutary neglect, the foundation for the future conflicts between England and the colonies began to form. Like a developing child in the absence of parental authority, the colonies looked to themselves for survival. When mother England attempted to regain control of the colonies, the child rebelled.

•  Headright system: This was a land policy developed in the 1600s in Virginia and Maryland designed to encourage settlement in the New World. It promised 50 acres to any person who paid his own passage to the New World. It also promised an additional 50 acres to any person who paid the passage of someone else to the New World. Indentured servants were brought to the New World under this system.

•  Indentured servitude: A practice used in colonial America in which a person entered into a contract for a specified period of time with another in exchange for the payment of his or her passage to the New World; the indentured servant was sometimes promised some land after the time of the indenture was fulfilled

•  Joint stock company: This was a company that developed in the early 1600s in England wherein a group of investors pooled their money to finance exploration of the New World. The investor would receive a portion of the profits resulting from the exploration of the New World based on the number of shares of stock (ownership) he or she had.

•  Patroonship: Large plantation-type farm established by the Dutch along the Hudson River in the 1600s

•  Primogeniture: The practice of granting the firstborn son the right to all the inheritance of the parent’s estate, rather than subdividing it and giving portions to all offspring

•  Proprietary colony: A type of colony that was settled by a group of investors and in which the governor of the colony was chosen by the proprietors

•  Royal colony: A type of colony controlled by the king where the crown chose the governor to run the colony

•  Salutary neglect: This was the British policy of the 17th century in which the British were lax in the enforcement of laws in the colonies, thereby allowing the colonies to develop without much interference from the British government. After the French and Indian War, this policy changed to one of involvement, leading to the American Revolution.

•  Self-governing colony: A type of colony in which the people of the colony chose the governor of the colony; Rhode Island was a self-governing colony

•  Theocracy: A system of government in which the religious leaders rule; a church-state, where the church is the government, is an example

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1.   The settlements of Jamestown and Plymouth differed in that

(A)    Jamestown was settled by Pilgrims, while Plymouth was settled by Puritans.

(B)    the settlers of Jamestown were married with families, while the settlers of Plymouth were mostly single males.

(C)    the settlers of Jamestown were largely single men seeking gold and adventure, while the settlers of Plymouth were mostly family units seeking religious freedom.

(D)    Jamestown was a royal colony, while Plymouth was settled by individuals without any connection to the crown.

(E)    Jamestown enjoyed a good relations with the Native Americans, while Plymouth colony was under constant attack from the Native Americans.

2.   Which person is correctly associated with a colony?

(A)    John Smith—Plymouth Colony

(B)    James Olgethorpe—Georgia

(C)    John Rolfe—Carolina

(D)    Lord Baltimore—North Carolina

(E)    Jonathan Winthrop—Connecticut

3.   The headright system

(A)    was an example of the Barbados Slave Codes.

(B)    referred to the number of people aboard a ship traveling from England to the New World.

(C)    was a form of slavery.

(D)    helped to populate the colonies of Virginia and Maryland.

(E)    increased the number of slaves imported to the New World.

4.   The major crops grown in the Southern colonies

(A)    were used within the colonies.

(B)    were sold as exports.

(C)    depended on small farmers as the major producers.

(D)    made the Southern colonies the “bread basket” of the English colonies.

(E)    increased the number of indentured servants necessary to produce these crops.

ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS

1.    C

The early settlers who arrived in Jamestown in 1607 were largely single males who were interested in finding gold, while the settlers in Plymouth were religious separatists who traveled with families seeking a new place to practice their religion. Plymouth was settled by the Pilgrims, but Jamestown was settled by the joint stock company known as the Virginia Company of London. Both were proprietary colonies, and both colonies experienced harsh conditions when they first settled.

2.    B

James Olgethorpe founded Georgia as a refuge for imprisoned debtors. Georgia also served as a defensive buffer against the Spanish in Florida. John Smith was the leader of the Jamestown (not Plymouth) colony and was largely responsible for its survival. John Rolfe perfected the production of tobacco in Virginia, Lord Baltimore founded Maryland as a refuge for Catholics, and Jonathan Winthrop was governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

3.    D

The headright system was employed by Virginia and Maryland to encourage settlement in those areas. According to this system, a person would receive 50 acres of land for every person whose passage to the New World he or she paid. This led to large landholdings in these areas. This system was not designed to keep a count of the number of immigrants. Although some considered indentured servitude a form of white slavery, the headright system was based on a contract between patron and indentured servant. The Barbados Slave Codes were passed in 1661 by the British government and later adopted by South Carolina for the purpose of controlling African slaves.

4.    B

The crops produced in the Southern colonies, such as tobacco, rice, and indigo, were mainly for export to England, unlike crops from other colonies at that time. These crops were grown by large planters. Smaller farmers produced other crops that were less labor-intensive. The Southern colonies’ crops increased the number of African slaves needed, not indentured servants, to fill the labor demands. The Middle Colonies produced large amounts of grain and became the “bread basket” of the colonies.