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farms, all the while operating with little money to pay laborers. As plantations and farms spread throughout the South, a growing need for cheap labor encouraged the expansion of slavery. The slave trade was part of a triangle. The Americas would send sugar, tobacco, and cotton to Europe. From Europe, ships would take textiles, rum, and other goods to Africa. Then, ships would bring slaves from Africa back to the Americas. Congress abolished the transatlantic slave trade (but not slavery) in 1808. In spite of the fact that the slave trade was illegal, domestic trade and illegal overseas trade were still common. For a time, it seemed as if nothing could prevent the demand for slavery, especially in the growing cotton industry of the southern states. THE ECONOMIC ROOTS OF SLAVERY In the South, plantation slavery was viewed as a requirement for economic success. In fact, plantation slavery was a major contributing factor to the profitability of crops like cotton and rice. Small farmers could churn a profit, but they were by no means the agricultural powerhouses of the region. Plantations might have around fifty slaves, whereas small farmers might have just a handful. Conditions for slaves on each type of property could differ significantly, as did the conditions of different positions on the property. In the earliest days of United States history, no laws existed surrounding slavery. In 1640, Virginia courts sentenced an African man, John Punch, to slavery after he tried to run away from his indentured servitude. The white men he’d escaped with were sentenced to only a few extra years of servitude. This set early precedent for black and white servants to be treated differently, though this was surely not the first time that had happened. The role of indentured servitude and slavery became significant as the South developed an economy based on agriculture and commodity crops , which were typically labor-intensive. Plantations prospered by growing tobacco, rice, and indigo in the

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Overview of Plantation Slavery