Thursday, August 11, 2011

Slavery question? need help!!!?

Here is just a brief summary from what I remember from my colonial America course as an undergrad. Slavery in the American colonies was dictated by what crops grew in what region as well as some religious influences. For example, in the southern colonies, especially South Carolina, rice was a productive crop. This is a crop that required hard manual labor to cultivate which led to a high slave rate. The same can be said for tobacco when you start moving farther north into Virginia. Tobacco was not as slave intensive as rice but it still required labor to cultivate. When you start moving into the middle colonies, e.g. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York grains were more prominent. These required even less labor to harvest than tobacco or rice. In addition, there was a large population of Quaker immigrants in the middle colonies who were adamantly opposed to slavery anyway. Even further north in New England, you have an economy based on trade and fisheries. These industries don’t rely on slave labor so you will see slaves in these northern colonies but not in the same numbers you see the further south you go. When you move south, crops like rice and even sugar cane required the most slave labor to harvest. Moving north, the labor required for harvest diminishes. Just a brief summary, you will need to beef it up with specific examples but you should get the idea.

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