Economic, geographic, and social factors encouraged the growth of slavery as an important part of the economy of the southern colonies between 1607 and 1775. As slavery increased, the gaps in the southern colonies social structure widened. Economically and geographically, slaves provided the South with cheap rice and tobacco cultivators, thus creating a stable economy for southern planters. .
Southern life revolved around the great plantations, ruling the region's economy and virtually monopolizing political power. At the top of the social ladder, planters owned large groups of slaves and acres of land. Such slaves were hardworking and businesslike individuals who kept the jobs of planters alive and running strong. They built riverfront manors, tended to tobacco crops, rode to the hounds, labored rice plantations, and even cultivated the arts. A planter's prestige, wealth, and political power increased, due to the ownership of slaves. .
African slaves were far less expensive than indentured "white slave" servants. Both Virginia and Maryland tobacco plantations needed cheap labor to tend to their crops if they wanted to create larger amounts of product, creating more profit. Financially, planters could not afford to continuously hire indentured servants because they would have to in turn repay them with fifty acres of land once they completed their term, the "headright" system. The employment of African slaves was much different; once a planter bought a slave, they were forever his property. Slowly, slavery began to shape the South's economy.
Geographically, the south's climate and rich soil made it a plantation owner's haven. Rice and tobacco plantations were thoroughly successful in the southern colonies, but demand large amounts of laborers to tend to the crops every need. Importing slaves from Africa fulfilled the needed workforce for the plantations. African slaves brought with them their rice cultivation skills to the south, making South Carolina the rice basket of the British Empire.