How did the earch for viable labor force affect the develpment of the southern colonies? What was the role of African American slavery in the early colonial settlements? Why were wo southern colonies initially resistant to slavery?

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The search for labor in southern states eventually led the states to do something they didn’t intend on doing. With the great demand for tobacco from states like Virginia and Maryland, and the large demand for sugar cane from the West Indies, the settlers were forced to turn to slave labor. They played a small role at first in the southern states, but eventually made up a large percentage of these areas populations. Georgia and North Carolina opposed slavery, but were unable to compete with the other states crop production. English settlers in Virginia and later Maryland around the Chesapeake Bay area discovered a crop from the Indians known as tobacco. This plant was incredibly easy to grow. The ground just had to be soil. The seeds just had to be planted. It only took a year. It was considered a poor mans crop because of how easy it was to grow. And best of all, tobacco was loved in Europe. The Europeans couldn’t get enough of it. The people of Virginia couldn’t grow enough of it, but didn’t resort to slavery right away. Slaves were few in the area, only a few that were bought there from the Caribbean, where they were often used for sugar cane. With the increasing demand for tobacco, the southern colonies needed a bigger labor force. Farmers and indentured servants couldn’t keep up with the demand for tobacco. Slaves were very successful for growing sugar cane, so eventually the southern colonies called for them to be bought over. They weren’t expensive to buy, and once owned didn’t need to be paid. A slave code was bought over from the Barbados, stating that slaves had no rights and were completely owned by their owners. Even though it wasn’t intended, slavery flourished in the southern colonies. Originally Georgia and North Carolina didn’t agree with slavery. When Georgia was founded, the intention was to rehabilitate prisoners. Prisoners

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