Chesapeake Colonies
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The Chesapeake Colonies refers to the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Province of Maryland, later Maryland, both colonies located in British America and centered around the Chesapeake Bay.
These colonies were founded in the 17th century and economies were dependent on the Bay's rich fisheries, docking ships, and plantations. The cash crop [tobacco] was especially important. The Bay's natural resources and utility as a shipping lane and port proved highly valuable.
They are sometimes considered part of the Southern Colonies, but the incidence of both Virginia and Maryland ceding territory to form a joint District of Columbia, is important to show a difference. Maryland is sometimes considered part of the Middle Colonies, especially seeing as how Delaware was originally part of that colony, until being transferred to Pennsylvania during the Calvert-Penn boundary dispute which amounted to the Mason-Dixon Line.
