Expert: Hank Hokamp - 10/23/2007

Question
do you know about any topics that caused debates in the southern colonies?

Answer

 Thanks, Tang, for the question:

 Most of the South and some of the middle colonies were set up to find areas of profit, though gold and spices were the first things they were looking for, they did find rice, tobacco, and cotton to be profitable exports. Chattel slavery became a profitable business as well. There were slaves from the South to the North, though most of the North had domestic slaves, and some labor slaves. The South was primarily set up with chattel slavery, all plantations established used slaves to survive. The south continued to thrive despite the constant problems with the Natives. Large plantations were established, and the southern plantation owners became very wealthy.

  Life in the south was easy for those who were in charge of large plantation, but for the rest of the population the life was miserable. Small farmers were very poor and struggled to barely survive. They were looked down upon by the plantation owners who had wealth and prestige. For the slaves of the south, life was unbearable. It was impossible to be a family if you were a slave. Fathers and mothers were not allowed to be married and they were often separated from their children at the auction block. Beatings, whippings, rapes and killings were frequently suffered by the slaves at the hands of their white overseers and masters. Sometimes black women who were raped by their white owners would bare partly white babies; those babies who were too white were often killed at birth by the overseers.

  Life was not only hard for the poor and slaves. As people expanded into new territories, Native attacks were quite common. The ongoing problem the colonists had with the Natives would not be solved until after the Revolutionary war.

 When the colonies ended with the Revolutionary War; America found itself alive, free, and full of hope for the future. But the United States as we know it today won't emerge until after the Civil War that threaten to tear the country apart.

                                       HANK