Colonial LifeMain Idea – The Economy of the Southern colonies is dependent on labor intensive cash crops

Tobacco and Rice and Indigo…

• Cash Crop grown as a money making venture

• 3 Cash Crops in the South

• Tobacco – VA, MD, NC• Rice – SC, GA• Indigo – SC

• All very labor intensive to

harvest

• Grown on Plantations

Gentry

BackCountryFarmer

Tenant Farmer

Indentured Servant

Slaves

Social Structurein the SouthernColonies

Who is Who?• Gentry – wealthy, landowners,

plantations, slave owners• Back Country Farmers – Former

Indentured Servants, not much money, subsistence farmers

• Tenant Farmers – work someone else’s land

• Indentured Servants – Agree to work for period of time in exchange for trip to America

• Slaves – Property – no rights – Slave Code

Bacon’s Rebellion - 1676

• BCF not allowed to move west into native land

• Bacon leads BCF against natives, then gentry

• Burns down Jamestown

• Bacon dies in swamp• Rebellion Fails!• So why even talk

about it ? Because….

Long-term Effects of Bacon’s Rebellion

• Gentry don’t want another rebellion

• Indentured Servants set free and become BCF

• No Indentured Servants – Slave labor instead

• Slavery becomes part of the Southern economy

Slavery Becomes a Business