A beginner's history

by William H. Mace

The younger colonies could not live by growing tobacco. Virginia was nearer to the English market, and supplied it with most of the tobacco needed. They did raise corn and cattle for their own use. One day a ship captain from the Orient sailed into Charleston with some rice. The story runs that he gave a few handfuls of this to the governor as a curiosity. The wise old governor heard that this rice had been grown in swamps, and he thought of the swamps all along the coast of Carolina and Georgia. He had some of it planted in this wet land, and it grew beyond all hopes. In a few years rice was produced in such quantity that it could be shipped to England, where it was thought the best on the market.

Indigo also grown

Some one else discovered that the low, wet land would also grow indigo, a plant used for making a brilliant and valuable blue dye. Indigo soon brought the settlers as much money as did the rice.

Lumber, tar, and turpentine

The great pine woods furnished lumber that was sent to Europe by the boatload. From the sap of the pine trees the colonists also learned to make turpentine and rosin. By heating or distilling the wood itself they produced tar. To this day one of the most striking sights in these states are the great sawmills and the stills, where negroes are making turpentine much as it was made a century and a half ago.

When Georgia was settled Oglethorpe did not permit slaves to be brought in, and the colonists had to do all their own work. But later there were as many slaves in Georgia as in the Carolinas or Virginia.

SUGGESTIONS INTENDED TO HELP THE PUPIL

The Leading Facts. 1. Peter Stuyvesant was sent out by the Dutch West India Company as Governor of New York. 2. He ruled the colony in his own way and gave the people very little power. 3. The council surrendered the colony to the English against the will of Stuyvesant. 4. New Netherland became the colony of New York. 5. The Dutch kept up the customs of their native country. 6. William Penn, son of a great English naval officer, became a Quaker while a student at Oxford. 7. He founded a colony in America on a tract of land given him in payment of the king's debt to his father. 8. Penn gave the colonists the right to choose their own rulers and to make their own laws. 9. He gave a free constitution and made friends with the Indians. 10. He founded the city of Philadelphia, which grew faster than the other colonial towns. 11. The Quakers were gentle and friendly to everybody. 12. All religions were welcomed in the colony. 13. When a friend of Oglethorpe's died in a debtors' prison, Oglethorpe determined to do something for the unfortunates shut up in jail for debt. 14. He obtained a charter from the king for some land in Georgia. 15. In his selection of settlers no lazy men were allowed. 16. The town was built near the mouth of the Savannah River. 17. The Savannah colony flourished, and many other settlers came to Georgia. 18. Oglethorpe built Frederica to keep back the Spaniards. 19. The colonies south of Virginia thrived on the production of rice, indigo, lumber, tar, and turpentine.

Study Questions. 1. Tell the story of Peter Stuyvesant until the time he became governor. 2. What reforms did Stuyvesant bring to the colony? 3. How did he rule? 4. What part did the nine men play in the government? 5. What were they called? 6. Why were the people glad when the English fleet came? 7. What did William and Mary do for the colony? 8. Tell what you know about the way the Dutch lived. 9. Why should the students at Oxford be surprised to hear that William Penn had turned Quaker? 10. Why did his father drive him from home? 11. What shows that William Penn did not waste his time in Paris? 12. Who made peace between Penn and his father? 13. What was William Penn's noble resolution? 14. How did Penn come into possession of Pennsylvania? 15. Prove that Penn was a very generous man. 16. Why did William Penn call his town the "city of brotherly love"? 17. Make a picture of the great treaty under the elm. 18. Tell the story of Oglethorpe. 19. Why did Charleston lend a helping hand to Oglethorpe's colony? 20. Where did the settlers of Georgia come from? 21. What did Oglethorpe build Frederica for? 22. What did the colonists south of Virginia raise?