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Slavery and the Southern Economy
Virginia / Maryland / North Carolina / South Carolina / Georgia
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
(PAGES 128-129)
The slave trade involved the transport of around 13 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to
be sold as slaves in North and South America. This terrifying and often deadly voyage was called
the Middle Passage. The journey could last as long as three months. Ship captains packed
enslaved Africans as tightly as possible, chaining them by the necks and legs where they lived in
a space hardly three feet high. One ship captain reported that the slaves:
“… had not so much room as a man in his coffin, either in length or breadth. It was
impossible for them to turn or shift with any degree of ease.”
Slave traders fit as many slaves as possible on board to increase profits. Thousands of captives
died during the voyage either from diseases – such as smallpox, dysentery, and malaria – or
from being thrown overboard when they became ill.
Slave labor and the slave trade had become important parts of the colonial economy.
The Southern Economy
(Pages 130-131)
The southern economy relied on agriculture and raw materials. The southern colonies
exported raw materials for building ships, particularly timber, to overseas markets and to its
northern neighbors.
Small farms as well as large plantations supported the southern agricultural economy, which
benefited from a warm climate and long growing season. The southern colonies based their
agricultural economy on the production of cash crops – crops grown mainly to be sold for
profits. The primary cash crops were tobacco, rice, and indigo. Colonists rarely grew cotton
because harvesting it was too difficult and expensive.
The southern colonies’ cash crops required a great deal of difficult work and a large labor force.
By the 1700s enslaved Africans were the main labor force… enslaved Africans and their
children had to work for life. On some plantations, slaves did many of their tasks unsupervised.
When a job was finished, slaves were sometimes allowed to do their own work. Some slaves
were able to earn enough money to buy their freedom, although this became more difficult as
slavery laws became harsher.
Most of the colonies passed slave codes, or laws to control slaves. Slave codes were most
extensive in colonies where there were large numbers of slaves such as South Carolina. This
colony’s code did not permit slaves to hold meetings or to own weapons, because slaveholders
feared that slaves would revolt. Some colonies made it illegal for slaveholders to free their
slaves. Members of the Virginia assembly passed a law allowing people to kill a runaway slave
resisting capture.