With regard to the antebellum years or during the US Civil War, Black slaves provided the bulk of the labor on large cotton plantations. This ended gradually during the Civil War as Union troops captured territory in the South as the war progressed to its end in 1865.
Slaves were the main labor source for large plantations.
Plantations
Enslaved African people provided much of the labor on plantations in the Americas, working under brutal conditions to produce crops like sugar, cotton, and tobacco for European markets.
Southern plantations used slaves.
To Provide inexpensive labor on Large Plantations!
Plantation owners turned to enslaved Africans as a labor force due to their need for cheap and abundant labor to work on the large plantations. Enslaved Africans were seen as a profitable and easily controlled source of labor that could be exploited for economic gain. The transatlantic slave trade provided a constant supply of enslaved people to meet the labor demands of the plantations.
Plantations needed many workers, including indentured servants, to cultivate labor-intensive crops like tobacco, sugar, and cotton. The demand for these crops led to the need for a large and cheap labor force to maximize profit for plantation owners. Indentured servants provided a source of labor that was more affordable than other forms of labor at the time.
Large farms that have labor intensive crops, or large amounts of land required large work forces. Slaves were bought to work on large plantations as a sort of free form of labour for the slave owners.
enslaved Africans that were brought to America and forced to work on plantations
The southern region of the United States, particularly states like Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi, used slave labor to operate large plantations for crops like cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane.
French colonists rarely established large plantations in North America
The high mortality rates among indigenous populations due to diseases brought by Europeans led to the shift towards African labor on plantations. Africans were also seen as a more reliable source of labor due to their perceived immunity to certain diseases and experience with agriculture. Additionally, the Atlantic slave trade provided a large supply of enslaved Africans for labor in the Americas.