Editing Thirteen Colonies (section)

===Southern colonies===
The first British colony was [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]], established on May 14, 1607, near [[Chesapeake Bay]]. The business venture was financed and coordinated by the [[London Virginia Company]], a joint-stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony survived and flourished by turning to tobacco as a cash crop.{{Sfnp|Taylor|2002}}<ref name="heinemann">{{Cite book |last1=Heinemann |first1=Ronald L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQGFjKy_5OsC |title=Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: A History of Virginia, 1607–2007 |last2=Kolp |first2=John G. |last3=Parent |first3=Anthony S. Jr. |last4=Shade |first4=William G. |date=2008 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-3048-0 |location=Charlottesville, Virginia |oclc=825768138 |access-date=2022-05-03}}</ref>

In 1632, [[Charles I (England)|King Charles I]] granted the charter for the [[Province of Maryland]] to [[Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore]]. Calvert's father had been a prominent Catholic official who encouraged Catholic immigration to the English colonies. The charter offered no guidelines on religion.<ref name="sparky">{{Cite book |last=Sparks |first=Jared |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RBsNAAAAIAAJ |title=The Library of American Biography: George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore |publisher=Charles C. Little and James Brown |year=1846 |publication-place=Boston |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RBsNAAAAIAAJ/page/n30 16]– |quote=Leonard Calvert.}}</ref>

The [[Province of Carolina]] was the second attempted English settlement south of Virginia, the first being the failed attempt at [[Roanoke Colony|Roanoke]]. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English [[Lords Proprietors]] who obtained a [[Royal Charter]] to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to that area. Eventually, however, the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by Sir [[John Colleton]]. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]], originally Charles Town for [[Charles II of England]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weir |first=Robert M. |title=Colonial South Carolina: A History |date=1983}}</ref>