Daily Life in the Southern Colonies

Religion

     Religon in the Southern Colonies was a little diverse.  Maryland was founded for Catholics, but soon other worshipers lived there too.  For the most part, the rest of the colonies, especially on the coast, were Anglican, the official church of England.  Moving further from the coast into the back country, one found a more diverse religious population including Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists in later years.  Like in both the New England and the Middle Colonies, religion was extremely important to the settlers.

Housing, Food, and Clothing

     In the Southern Colonies, women wore petticoats and cotton dresses and girls, just the latter.  Men and boys wore breeches, a shirt, a hat, and boots or shoes.  Many rich families lived on vast plantations with many brick or stone buildings where they farmed crops to sell for money.  In the back country, yeomen, or poor to middle class farmers, grew food to support their families.  Most yeomen and back country settlers lived in log houses.  In Charles Town (Charleston, today) richer people lived in Charles Town Single Houses or Charles Town Double Houses.  Southern Colonists often had wild game, fish, raised animals, rice, fruits, vegetables, bread to eat and water to drink.