Question

Why was slave labor so important to the economy of the Southern colonies?

Answer 1

because, the southern colonies were very well suited for agriculture and so the colonists found it better to use slaves than pay white men to help in the plantations

Answer 2

Originally the Colonies used "indentured servants" poor European which paid for their transportation across the Atlantic with seven years of servitude. When this source of cheap labor diminished the African slave trade was used. Supposedly only 7 % of the trade went to the U.S. colonies while the rest went to the Caribbean and South America.

Answer 3

Actually the word slave comes from the eastern European of Slavic origin, which were one of the first slaves. Still there parts of the world that use slav for slave.