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This article provides information on the state of literature in the southern colonies from the 17th century to the 20th century. Writing in the Southern colonies in the 17th century was the work of new or temporary settlers, mostly English, like Captain John Smith. By the turn of the 18th century, however, native Virginians such as William Byrd and Robert Beverley, though still under the influence of English education and style, were using local materials. With the arrival of the newspaper several decades later and the political unrest that followed in midcentury, writing became an important factor in colonial culture.