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A new map of Virginia, Maryland, and the improved parts of Pennsylvania & New Jersey, 1685 map of the Chesapeake region by Christopher Browne. The Chesapeake Colonies were the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Province of Maryland, later Maryland, both colonies located in British America and centered on the Chesapeake Bay.
The colonies exported naval stores, fur, lumber and tobacco to Britain, and food for the British sugar plantations in the Caribbean. The culture of the Southern and Chesapeake Colonies was different from that of the Northern and Middle Colonies and from that of their common origin in the Kingdom of Great Britain.
The name Chesapeake is an anglicization of the Algonquian word, K'che-sepi-ack, which translates as "country on a great river." [1] In 1585, their name was recorded by English colonists as Ehesepiooc. [1] Their name is spelled many different ways and also listed as Chesapians. [1]
The colonies developed prosperous economies based on the cultivation of cash crops, such as tobacco, [3] indigo, [4] and rice. [5] An effect of the cultivation of these crops was the presence of slavery in significantly higher proportions than in other parts of British America.
[1] [2] [3] Like other colonies and settlements of the Chesapeake Bay region, its economy was soon based on tobacco as a commodity crop, highly prized among the English, cultivated primarily by African slave labor, although many young people came from Britain sent as indentured servants or criminal prisoners in the early years.
Literature in the European sense was nearly nonexistent, with histories being far more noteworthy. These included The History and present State of Virginia (1705) by Robert Beverly and History of the Dividing Line (1728–29) by William Byrd, which was not published until a century later. Instead, the newspaper was the principal form of reading ...
July: Proprietary government overthrown in Maryland. War breaks out with Kingdom of France, beginning the Nine Years' War in Europe; beginning of King William's War in the colonies. George Keith controversy divides Pennsylvania Quakers. 1690 – Schenectady, New York devastated by French and Native American troops.
In all the colonies that later became part of the United States, population growth throughout this period was vigorous, growing from a population of about 25,000 in 1640 to around 75,000 in 1660. The colonies also became more ethnically and religiously diverse. Another effect was the establishment of colonial assemblies in most of the colonies.