The Slavers : 221 



abuses continued. However, from this time on the position of the 

 surviving Indians in the West Indies and elsewhere began to im- 

 prove. In the West Indies this improvement was partly due to the 

 fact that Negro slaves, in increasing number, were arriving in the 

 colonies. 



Apparenty Negro slavery in North America began in 1619. In 

 that year a Dutch privateering vessel landed at the Jamestown col- 

 ony in Virginia and sold its cargo of slaves to the settlers. From this 

 time on there was a gradual but steady increase in the use of Negro 

 slaves in the English colonies of the south. In Virginia the discovery 

 and development of tobacco as a prime commercial crop accounted 

 for the increasing use of slave labor. They were employed in clearing 

 the land, in cultivating and in moving the crop preparatory to ship- 

 ment. 



Tobacco is a crop that soon exhausts the soil and this was particu- 

 larly true in the methods of cultivation that were then employed. 

 This, in addition to the naturally increasing demand for tobacco in 

 the English and other European markets, brought about the necessity 

 for continually clearing new lands and increasing the area under cul- 

 tivation. Negroes were in demand to carry out the heavier part of 

 this labor. As long as the tobacco market was good and lands were 

 available and white labor scarce, slave labor was readily resorted to. 



Virginia was the best tobacco country and prospered on this single 

 crop. In fact, the rapid development of this crop and the furor for 

 its cultivation that seized the colonists accounted for neglect in the 

 establishment of other industries and manufactures which had been 

 one of the prime motives of the Virginia company in establishing 

 the colony. Other southern colonies had difficulty in discovering 

 profitable enterprises. The great plantations which were soon estab- 

 lished in Virginia did not extend into North Carolina. This region 

 was divided into smaller farms and many of them were taken up by 

 indentured servants that had won their freedom. They raised cattle 

 and other domestic animals, cultivated some tobacco and corn. The 

 general situation of the colony did not lend itself to the employment 

 of slave labor. 



South Carolina, on the other hand, furnished a different situation. 

 The cultivation of rice had been introduced into Virginia in 1647 

 but production was not large and this crop was soon replaced by 

 tobacco. When rice was introduced into the low swampy lands that 

 lay along the South Carolina coast it did well and large yields re- 

 sulted. The long hot summers brought the crop to full maturity. 



