Question

Which of the following was allowed for slaves in the southern colonies?

Answer 1

Slavery became the heart of southern colonial society and the economy at the turn of the 18th century. When the Dutch monopoly on the slave trade ended in 1690, British merchants began carrying thousands of slaves from Africa and the Caribbean to the southern colonies to work in the tobacco fields. The English and French forced an astounding six million Africans into slavery. Most went to the West Indies and Brazil, but large numbers did go to the Chesapeake region, perhaps as many as 100,000 in the 1700s. As slaves were imported, and as they increased naturally, the southern colonies evolved from a society with slaves to a slave society.
marching enslaved across Africa

Marching enslaved across Africa

As tobacco markets grew stronger after 1730 and England signed contracts with France to sell the French as much tobacco as they demanded, the southern colonies growing tobacco increased production to take advantage of the rising prices. In order to preserve and expand their labor system, planters chose not to work their slaves as brutally as masters did in the West Indies.

Slave masters in the southern colonies paid attention to their slaves’ health, clothing, and food supply. Not so much from a sense of humanity, but because the masters wanted the slaves to form families and reproduce. This would lessen demand for expensive imported slaves. As a result by the 1750s, American-born slaves outnumbered African slaves in the North American colonies.