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Chapter 6
Southeast and Gulf States
Lesson 1-Settlement and Early Life
Exploring the region
The Spanish were the first to explore this region!
-they were here looking for gold, silver and other riches.
Juan Ponce de Leon was the first explorer, he landed in what is now Florida.
-He named the land “La Florida”=Full of Flowers in Spanish.
The second Spanish explorer was Hernando de Soto, he also landed in Florida.
-he marched north with a small army looking for gold…but found none.
-they were the first Europeans to cross the Mississippi River.
Explorers often met and fought with the N.A.
-they took N.A. land and riches
-they also forced the N.A. into slavery!
-making one person the property of another, and forcing them to do work
without being paid.
The Spanish never found riches, but they did claim a lot of land for Spain.
A region for farming
Other than Spain, France, Britain and eventually the U.S. claimed land in this region.
Many people wanted to live here because of the excellent farmland.
(the following set of notes are the reasons why farming was so successful in this region.)
1. gently rolling or flat coastal plains
2. rich soil in the floodplains along the region’s rivers.
2a. Floodplain- a flat area next to a river made up of rich sediment. The sediment is
deposited there when the river overflows its banks.
3. Region also has a long growing season- time when the weather is warm enough for
plants to grow.
4. Lots of rainfall every year.
5. Region’s rivers and harbors were an excellent way for farmers to ship their crops to
markets ($$)
6. Many ports grew and became large cities.
-6a. Charleston, SC, was the region’s largest port.
Cash crops
Farms covered most of the region.
Some grew cash crops, such as…
-cotton, rice, sugar cane and indigo - a plant used to make blue dye for clothing.
Most cash crops were grown on plantations, which were huge farms.
Crops are grown in places where they’ll grow well…
-Florida=sugar cane
-North=rice and indigo
-Middle region=cotton
Georgia became largest producer of cotton in the world!
Slavery and the South…(the following are some reasons why some people in the South
wanted slavery)
1. Plantations were huge=needed lots of workers to plant, harvest and take care
of the crops.
2. In order to make money, farmers needed cheap workers=slaves did the work
without being paid.
A nation divided
(the following are the reasons that led to the Civil War.)
Mid 1800s, the North and South of the U.S. were very different…
-the South had huge farms that needed lots of workers (slaves)
-their economy depended on farms and slaves to do the work.
The North had farms too, but had many more factories and mills.
-factories and mills needed less people to run, since machines did most of the
work.
Northerners wanted to abolish, or end, slavery.
Most Southerners felt that each state had the right to decide to have slavery or not.
These differences began to split the U.S. apart.
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln became President and opposed slavery (against it).
After Lincoln’s election, 11 Southern states decided to secede, or leave, the Union.
-these states formed their own country, called the Confederate States of America, or the
Confederacy.
The U.S. was now divided…
The Civil War
The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate (south) soldiers fired on Union
forces at Fort Sumpter, in SC.
Civil War- a war between groups of people in the same country.
Civil War lasted four years, and more than 600,000 soldiers died.
Ended on April 9, 1865, when the Confederate Army surrendered.
During the war, 1863, Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation- an order that freed
all slaves.
More than 4 million slaves gained freedom after the war ended!