Page 248 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

246  THE SOUTHEAST

and it was their agricultural expertise that
made the land-owning “planters” the
wealthiest in the American colonies. Their
wealth, however, was based on slave labor,
and thousands of Africans were imported
to clear the swamps, dig canals, and
harvest the crops. Along the coast where
the main crops, rice and indigo, were
grown, the white colonists were a small
minority, outnumbered four to one by the
Canons on display at the Civil War Museum in workers whose labor they exploited.
Bardstown, Kentucky The great fortunes made in Carolina
inspired the creation in 1732 of another
Apart from a prominent Cherokee colony, Georgia, located to the south. In
community in the far western corner of many ways Georgia was a unique colony,
North Carolina, very few Native Americans funded by the government rather than
survive in the region today. private interests and founded with social,
In the early 1500s, explorers from Florida’s rather than commercial, intentions. For
Spanish colonies ventured northward, the first time in the Americas, slavery was
lured by Native Americans’ tales of great banned, as was drinking alcohol and
wealth. The Spanish were followed by the the presence of lawyers. The new colony,
French and then the English. But it was however, faltered and came under the
only in 1670, under Charles II, that the first control of Carolina, which introduced
successful colony, called Carolina, was slave-holding practices.
established near what is today Charleston. In December 1860, the state of South
Carolina’s first settlers came from the Carolina declared itself independent from
congested English colony on Barbados, the rest of the country. Though Georgia
followed soon after, the other Southeast
KEY DATES IN HISTORY states remained with the Union. It was only
1587 Sir Walter Raleigh sponsors the establishment after South Carolina forces attacked the
of an ill-fated colony at Roanoke Island in present-day fortress at Fort Sumter near Charleston, on
North Carolina
April 12, 1861, that Tennessee and North
1670 The first permanent English settlement in the Carolina joined the rebel cause, which
Carolina colony is established at Charleston
1729 Carolina divided into North and South became known as the Civil War. Ironically,
1763 The Anglo-Spanish treaty fixes the Mississippi only Kentucky, the birthplace of both
River as the western extent of the Southeast colonies President Abraham Lincoln and
1792 Kentucky becomes the 15th US state Confederate President Jefferson Davis,
1795 The University of North Carolina, the country’s remained divided – a true border state.
first state-sponsored university, opens at Chapel Hill In the aftermath of the four-year Civil
1838 The government forcibly expels the Cherokees War that ended slavery, African-Americans
westward on the “Trail of Tears”
continued to struggle against the
1861 Confederates attack Fort Sumter
1864 General Sherman spares Savannah at the end prejudices of white Southerners and faced
of his notorious “March to the Sea” blatant inequality. They were forced to use
1903 The Ohio-based Wright Brothers make the first separate facilities, and building entrances
successful powered airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North were labeled especially for them. While
Carolina primarily a grassroots campaign, many
1976 Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter elected 39th of the battles were led by Atlanta-born
president of the United States
1996 Atlanta hosts the Olympics Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr.,
2002 Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel Peace Prize who practiced the use of nonviolent direct
action to win equality for black people.

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Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Portrait template “UK” LAYER
(SourceReport v1.2)
Date 5th December 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm