Mr. Durkhoop
US History 11
11 September 2014
Slavery in Colonial Era In the middle period of Colonial Era, a large number of black men came to America as labor force of the southern colonies. The slavery of blacks was legitimized and accepted practice during that time. Practice of slavery was more common and demanded in southern colonies than in the northern colonies because they needed multiple of people to work on vast farm land. Southern colonies were ideal place for agriculture. The southern land featured rich minerals and fertile soil. Furthermore, the climate was warm and moist which was perfect for growing cash crops. Slavery of Africans became a major contribution to the economy in southern colonies especially after the …show more content…
The southern colonies had hot, humid summers and mild winters, which was the perfect for a year round growing season. They had plethora of crops, leading to cash crops. Tobacco was one of the best cash crops in Colonial times, mainly because it worth an enormous amount of money. In order for the owners to grow tons of tobacco, they needed a lot of people and hard work to harvest all the plants. As a result, the majority of black living in the southern colonies worked on tobacco plantations. Slavery became the heart of southern colonial society and the economy. The cultivation of tobacco was extremely laborious, almost a year is required for the tobacco to grow and ready to be harvested. This kept the slaves busy throughout the year, but enabled successful shipment of harvested crops to England every …show more content…
Although African slaves had strong immunity to life-threatening disease like malaria and yellow fever, untold numbers of Africans died from severe fatigue. Nevertheless, the slavery still continued because the land owners forced breeding between slaves in order to increase the population of slaves. Slave breeding included coerced sexual relations between male and female slaves and sexual relations between the owner and slave. The land owners looked at the fertility of slave women as productivity of slave children. Under the Barbados code, the landowners were able to control and sole entire families of slaves. The slaveholders can sell one of the family member of slaves as a profit, punishment, or to pay the debt. The purpose of slave breeding was to produce new slaves without incurring the cost of purchase, to fill labor shortages, and to improve health and productivity of slaves. The involvement of black slaves on their plantations definitely benefited the industry of Colonial America. Despite the mistreatment of the the Africans, the Southern colonies weren’t able to produce as large of an amount of tobacco without them. Tobaccos and crops harvested with the help of black slaves enabled the economical development of the South. The North was also respected the hard works of black slaves.African slaves replaced the labor force of the colonists and improved the economy in the