29 Sept 2008

Daily Spark

Today Tolerant Maryland The Carolinas

The Ark and Dove The English ship Ark sailed into Chesapeake Bay. As it did on passenger, Father Andrew White, looked out in wonder. He called the Potomac the “greatest river I have seen, so that the Thames is but a little finger to it.” The Ark and the sister ship the Dove landed on the Potomac in March Most of the colonists were Catholic. On the river bank, the colonists made a cross out of a large tree to celebrate their first Catholic mass in the new colony.

Tolerant Maryland Many Catholics came to America for the same reason as the Puritans. They wanted to escape religious persecution. English Catholics had long been against England’s separation from the Roman Catholic Church. Because of this they were not allowed by the Church of England to worship freely.

Catholics England feared that Catholics would aid Catholic countries like France and Spain. King Charles I gave Cecilius Calvert a charter to found a new colony. Lord Baltimore intended the colony to be a refuge for English Catholics. He named the southern colony Maryland in honor of England’s queen Henrietta Maria.

Maryland Maryland was a proprietary colony, meaning that owners or proprietors controlled the government. Settlers in Maryland learned from Jamestown, they spent their time raising corn, cattle, and hogs. However, many soon turned their energies to tobacco for profit. The colony was made up mostly of men and very few families.

Toleration Act of 1649 A growing number of Protestants began to move into Catholic Maryland. Soon religious conflicts between the 2 groups arose. To reduce religious tension, Lord Baltimore presented a bill to the colonial assembly, known as the Toleration Act of It made restricting the religious rights of Christians a crime. This was one of the 1st laws supporting religious tolerance passed in the colonies.

The Carolinas In 1663, Charles II gave the land between Virginia and Spanish Florida to eight of his supporters. They named the new area Carolina, the Latin name for Charles. In the beginning the area was a single colony, but later it was divided, which made it hard to govern.

South Carolina Most of the colonists in North Carolina were farmers from Virginia. The colony had no towns and few churches until the early 1700s. The colony started in 1670, the port town of Charles Town, later renamed Charleston was the first colony. Those who paid their own way received large grants of land.

Slavery in the South Many of the South Carolina colonists came from the West Indies and brought their slaves with them. Because of this South Carolina was one of the 1st colonies to depend mainly on the work of slaves.

Crops Some colonists thought that South Carolina would be perfect for growing rice, but had to have the slaves show them how to raise the crop. Rice required many workers and to meet the need more slaves were brought in. By 1730, about 20,000 enslaved Africans were living in the colony. There were only 10,000 white colonists at the time.

Returning to the Crown In 1719 the poor management of the colony forced the king to buy back both North and South Carolina and make it a royal colony.