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 Settlers suffered from malaria, dysentery and typhoid  Most settlers had a short life expectancy  Men out numbered women 6 to 1 in 1650  Eventually immunities to disease were developed by the settlers  Population of Chesapeake did not grow until the end of the 17 th century when more women came to the middle colonies

 Virginia was the largest colony with 59,000 settlers  Tobacco grew well in the middle colonies  Tobacco exhausted the soil  People moved farther west to seek virgin land

 Overproduction of tobacco caused $ to drop  A drop in $ caused farmers to grow more tobacco  Farmers needed a labor supply; African slaves were too costly  Indentured servants provided a good source of labor  Headright System – 50 acres of land to anyone who paid passage of a labor  Headright System created the planter class in the Middle and Southern colonies  Indentured servants represented ¾ of all the settlers in the New World

 1679 One thousand Virginians broke out of control led by Nathaniel Bacon  Former indentured servants were angry over the governor’s friendly treatment of the Natives (William Berkeley was making money on the fur trade with the Natives)  Indentured servants were forced the move west in search of land  Natives attacked these frontiersmen and Berkeley refused to protect them

 Showed the discontent of the landless in Virginia  Caused landowners to look for less “troublesome” workers  African slaves replaced indentured servants

 Society defined by hierarchy of wealth and status  Plantation owners were at the top of the hierarchy and controlled economy and politics; then small farmers, indentured servants and slaves  Few cities in the south  Plantation life was isolated; waterways were the main source of transportation

 Cooler climate in New England lessened the threat of disease  Average life expectancy in New England was 70 years  New England attracted families and therefore had the largest population  New Englanders had large families  Southern women could retain property rights but New England women forfeited property upon remarriage  Women could not vote and was believed that they were morally weaker

 No divorce unless adultery or abandonment  New England societies were small villages or farms  United for a purpose – concerned about the moral health of the whole community

 All towns were legally chartered  Towns consisted of a meeting house surrounded by houses  Each family received a parcel of land  Towns of 50 or more families required to produce an elementary school

 Puritans ran churches  Democracy in government; New England town meeting  1650 membership in Puritan church decreasing  Ministers announced a half-way convenant; finally all were welcome in Puritan churches

 Reflected the unsettling social and religious conditions of the time  Many accused witches came from families associated with market economy  Accusers from subsistence farms  Showed the stratification of New England heritage was being eclipsed by Yankee commercialism

 New England had rocky soil  People were forced to develop a diversified agriculture and industry  New Englanders became experts in shipbuilding, fishing and commerce