Why did slavery become so important in colonial america?
Slavery was only a major contribution to the economy in the southern colonies–Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. These states’ economies depended on crops that required intensive cultivation by unskilled hands. Originally, indentured servants provided this labor. Unlike indentured servants, slaves could provide unpaid labor for their entire lifetimes and their children were also slaves. As a result, slaves became a sizable demographic in all the aforementioned states.
