Why+did+slavery+grow+to+be+such+an+important+insstitution+in+colonial+america,+and+how+did+it+divide+the+North+and+the+South+in+Colonial+America

Colonial America embraced slavery as an important institution because it was economical and successful. Slavery had such a big role in the colonies that it was even the reason for a northern/southern split because of economics and infrastructural differences. Tobacco, the most prominent crop in the south was a very time consuming and labor intensive crop to farm. Slaves became an easy answer to plantation managers when looking for cheap and reliable labor. Because slaves were "bought" by their owners and considered property, slave owners did not have to dish out wages for any of the slaves working the land. Being imported from Africa, slaves were less prone to disease that Indians otherwise would die from. Slave owners quickly found that if they had more slaves, they would grow more crops, and more crops always leads to more profit. Bacon's Rebellion (a rebellion of indentured servants before black slaves were prominent) taught plantation managers that the English citizens weren't stupid, and they knew what their rights were. As long as an indentured servant knew they could attain the success of their master, the rebellions would escalate and soon the colonies would be in complete chaos. The introduction of black slaves led to a new understanding of a difference in skin color. When slave realized that the difference between him and his master was skin color, and not just money, he became less apt to conspire a rebellion, because he thought that that was just the way things were. This took the stress off of slave owners, who now could manage their plantation without worrying about the next plot to rebel. The more slaves that were brought into the south, the more the north began to pull away. Slaves were less necessary, if at all necessary, in the north because northern colonies didn't have plantation farms. The farms that did exist were small and it wasn't economical to buy slaves for the very small amount of work that was to be done. Where the south relied almost solely on plantations farmed by slaves the north had other occupations. Merchants, small farmers, and fishers dominated the northern colonies and none of these occupations required slaves. Since the north focused more on business and trade, they had to develop ways to trade. This lead to the developing of cities, roads, canals, and schools. The south had no need for these things because they were already making enough money on their plantations. Schooling in the south was scarce because the main trade was plantation farming, and a plantation farmer wouldn't send his son to school to be anything else because it would be unbeneficial to the south's economy. Slavery became an important institution in the Colonial America because it helped the growth of the south, the division into infrastructure in the north and created the defining line between the two. Slavery influenced the colonies and created a new society, as America and apart from England.