Sunday, April 28, 2019
Why did Slavery Come to be the Dominant Labor System in the Southern Essay
Why did Slavery Come to be the ascendent Labor System in the Southern Colonies - Essay ExampleThe workforce in the agricultural arena in the southern colonies was mainly comprised of Europeans servants who worked on indenture basis. Although the Europeans still offered labor, African slaves were the better choice for industrial planters because they were flashy to maintain and more productive. By mid(prenominal) seventeenth century there was a colossal parapraxis towards slave labor in the south since demand for food was rising with expanding markets. At this time Africans had started to be shipped and be sold as slaves to the Statesns. The climate and soil in the south were more favorable for husbandry than those of the north. This made the sound to be heavily dependent on labor for development of orchards. The south as stated above was an i bulk region for agriculture all year round and crops like tobacco plant and rice thrived well. These crops are labor intensive and the props were quite vast. Therefore, a huge potential of the southern lands remained untapped considering that there were many waterways where crops could be transported to overseas markets. As these farms grew labor shortages became intense and by the end of the 17th century more than 500 Africans had been bought as slaves to meet the demand (Schneider and Schneider 48). This trend was soon followed by insularity of indentured European servants since many had saved enough to buy their own land and start farming. the States was quite big and un utilize by then and the Europeans found no reason not to surmise into far away lands. The Bacons Rebellion also saw many planters release white servants as they proved to be a danger to political stability. In this regards an alternative had to be sought to riposte the exodus of the white servants. By mid 18th century a total of 235,000 Africans were in America and 85% of them worked in the southern colonies of Virginia, Georgia, North and S outh Carolina (73). African slaves however came to be fully exploited after failed trials were made on Native Americans (Rodriguez 106). Many of them died from European diseases while many others ran away since they knew the land better than the Europeans. This left the planters no choice but to take in African slaves. This followed a massive expansion of plantations in Georgia and South Carolina which translated to increased production levels of rice and tobacco. These slaves did a great deal of work which the white servants had refused to do for example draining of swamps. West Africans came in handy especially in rice growing plantations since they were familiar with the kind of work required as their mother lands grew rice. Slaves worked for 15 hours on a daily basis especially during the harvest season (Norton and Sheriff 27). One overseer was required to negociate a minimum of 20 slaves doing back-breaking work and when a slave lazed around, the overseer was supposed to whip them. The incident that slaves were cheap to buy and maintain saw planters buy them in masses so as to plant and cultivate more. As earlier indicated slaves used to work for many hours per day which translated to bumper harvests and therefore booming plantation business. Many plantation owners like the Byrd family from Virginia turned to be quite wealthy (58). Such families came together to approach pattern elite classes of planters in the southern states who ensured that slave trade remained because it was a lifeline to their wealth. Southern colonies had vast copious lands for agriculture where Europeans worked as servants on indenture basis. The vastness and the need to grow crops on large photographic plate raised the need to have more workers. Slave trade was on the rise by mid 17th century and it saw many planters buy African slaves to work in
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