Maryland Colony: The Calverts

• The Maryland Colony was founded by the Calverts, a wealthy English Catholic family.
• The Calverts wanted to create a profitable colony and a refuge for Catholics, who could not freely worship in England.

The Calverts

• George Calvert, or Lord Baltimore, invested in the Virginia Company.
• Calvert requested a charter from King Charles I for a colony north of Virginia along Chesapeake Bay.
• George Calvert died in 1632 before the charter was signed.
• Cecilius Calvert, George's oldest son, inherited the charter and became the new Lord Baltimore.
• Cecilius named the colony Maryland.
• Leonard Calvert, Cecilius's brother, was chosen as Maryland's first governor.
• The Calvert brothers learned from the difficulties at Jamestown and carefully planned their colony to avoid "starving time."
• In 1633, the Calverts sent the first colonists to Maryland, most of whom were indentured servants.
• The colonists landed near the mouth of the Potomac River and founded their first settlement, St. Mary's City.
• Maryland and Virginia were neighboring colonies with a mild climate, separated by the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River.
• Tobacco thrived in the fertile soil of the Coastal Plain.
• While some Maryland colonists grew rich from large tobacco plantations, most struggled on small farms as indentured servants.
• The Maryland government assisted former servants by providing them with land, clothing, tools, and corn.
• Both Virginia and Maryland had governors and elected assemblies.
• The king controlled the royal colony of Virginia, whereas the Calverts controlled Maryland as a proprietary colony.
• The Toleration Act was passed in Maryland (1649), granting religious freedom to all Christians.
• The Anglican Church became the colony's official church in 1702.

The Carolina Colonies

• Colonists moved south from Maryland and Virginia to acquire more land.
• King Charles II granted land for the Carolina colony in 1663.
• The Carolina charter divided the colony among eight English leaders, the Lords Proprietors.
• In 1669, a constitution was adopted, allowing free white male colonists to elect leaders and create laws, although the proprietors and the king mostly held the power.
• The Carolina Colony became difficult to govern due to its size and colonists disregard for laws.
• In 1712, the Lords Proprietors split the colony into North Carolina and South Carolina.
• North Carolina farmers grew tobacco and corn.
• South Carolina farmers struggled with tobacco due to wet land.
• Enslaved African workers introduced rice cultivation techniques.
• Rice became South Carolina's main crop, which increased the need for enslaved people.

Georgia

• England, France, and Spain claimed the area south of South Carolina.
• King George II aimed to establish control by sending colonists to colonize the area in 1727.
• James Oglethorpe proposed settling the area with English debtors, who were imprisoned for owing money.
• Debtor-settlers would defend the land and have a chance for a new life.
• Oglethorpe was granted a charger from King George II to colonize the last of the 13 English colonies, named Georgia after the King.
• The first group of colonists founded Savannah in 1733.
• Initially, Georgia restricted farm sizes and prohibited slavery.
• In 1751, Georgia's leaders legalized slavery.
• Georgia's economy grew to depend on plantations and the labor of enslaved Africans, similar to the other Southern Colonies.

Heading West

• In the early 1700s, most English colonies towns, farms, and plantations were established near the coast on the Coastal Plain.
• Few colonists inhabited the Piedmont, the land between the Coastal Plain and the Appalachian Mountains.
• The land was called the backcountry because it was beyond the area settled by Europeans.
• The dense forests, steep slopes, and limited roads made reaching the backcountry challenging.
• By the mid-1700s, numerous settlers moved west of the Coastal Plain.
• Large communities of German immigrants from Pennsylvania settled in the Virginian and Carolinian backcountry.
• Settlers followed a Native American Trail that eventually widened for wagons and became known as the Great Wagon Road.
• The Great Wagon Road traversed the Shenandoah Valley and the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
• This road provided the primary route for transporting household goods to the backcountry.

Conflicts with Native Americans

• Thousands of Cherokee, Creek, Powhatan, and other Native American tribes lived in the Southern Colonies region.
• As Europeans arrived, they established settlements on Native American land. This led to conflicts.
• German and Swiss settlers in North Carolina destroyed a Tuscarora village to build their own settlement.
• Some colonists believed that the remaining Native Americans were not treated fairly.
• In 1711, land losses led the Tuscarora to attack settler settlements.
• The attacks led The Tuscarora War finally ended in 1713, where 950 Tuscarora people were killed or captured and sold into slavery.
• Settlers in the Southern Colonies kept displacing Native Americans off their lands.
• Some Native Americans were captured and sent to the West Indies to work on sugarcane plantations.
• Many others died due to fighting colonists over land or trade.
• Even peaceful Native American groups suffered greatly.

The Maryland Colony was founded by the Calverts, a wealthy English Catholic family seeking profit and religious refuge. George Calvert, or Lord Baltimore, invested in the Virginia Company and later requested a charter from King Charles I. Cecilius Calvert, George's oldest son, inherited the charter and named the colony Maryland.