[Sidenote: =Farms near the sea=]
=59. The Carolina and Georgia Planters.= The colonial farms south of
Virginia lay mostly in a narrow strip near the sea. Inland were the
"pine barrens," a poor, sandy country grown up in pine woods. Inland
also were strong and fierce tribes of Indians like the Cherokees and
Creeks.
[Sidenote: =Rice becomes an important product=]
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.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Sidenote: =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.