Slavery became a key component to the prosperous economy and continued to grow throughout much of colonial America.
- Initially, this new class of labor was categorized as “indentured servants.”
- this category included poor white Englishmen who traded years of labor in exchange for getting into America and black people brought to the colonies from Africa
- Over tim a series of laws were passed that made a clear distinction between indentured servants and slaves
- Black indentured servants did not have time limits to their service as described in the 1661 Fugitive Slave Law
- As time went on, indentured servants were completely replaced with African slaves
- Slaves were most popular in the South where they were used for agriculture work on large plantations
- The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 solidified the importance of slavery in the South.
- According to historian James Oliver Horton, cotton became the most valuable export from America in 1815 and most southern slaves were working in the cotton fields
- By 1850 the south was growing 87.5% of the world’s cotton
- Tobacco was another important crop and as its popularity grew