Why did the southern colonies need labor?

Answer 1

Historically, the use, and usually exploitation, of unfree persons has been the norm in societies with complex economic systems and specialization of labor. The Europeans who settled in the new world brought with them a culture that accepted slavery. Slavery was a normal part of Classical culture in the West, though the terms and conditions of slavery varied greatly and were somewhat different from what we associate with the concept. In the middle ages, serfdom developed many of the features that would later be found in the institution of slavery in America.

Slavery was not unique to the southern colonies in what is now the United States. It was a feature of the Spanish Empire, and other colonial powers that preceded it. All the English colonies, both in the north and south originally had the institution of chatel slavery that has become synonymous with the term "slavery" in the American psyche. They also had other classes of unfree persons who provided labor, such as indentured servants.

Perhaps a better way to think of the question is to ask, why did the institution of slavery die out later in the southern United States than in the north? The answer has to do with Economics. Historically, slavery tended to end around the time that industrialization took hold of a region. This is because automation eliminated much of the need for the human labor that slavery provided. In England, slavery was abolished well before the institution ended in the United States as England led the US in industialization by about a century. In the US, the north industiralized, while the south continued to be an agrarian economy and was largely dependant on cash crops, particularly cotton, which required a large amount of inexpensive, unskilled labor. For the south, slavery continued to provide a viable solution to the need for labor, while in the north systems of wages proved to be a more effective way to motivate workers to work in factories. Ultimately this change in economic need led to a shift in the value system in the north. That ideaological divide was ultimately a significant contributing factor to the start of the United States' civil war. However, it should still be pointed out that until the ratifiation of the 13 Ammendment, chatel slavery was still a legal institution under federal law and existed throughout the Union States.