The price of tobacco declined sharply in the 1660s and drove the
small white farmer to the wall. Only those with enough capital to
engage in large-scale operations could continue to make a profit.
In order to fill the need for the huge labor supply required
large-scale agriculture, the colonial legislature passed laws
giving legal justification to slavery. At the same time, Charles
II granted a royal charter establishing a company to transport
African slaves across the ocean and thereby increasing the supply
of slaves available to the colonial planter.
Until this time, the number of Africans in the colony
had been very small, but thereafter their numbers grew rapidly. The
African slaves provided the large, dependable, and permanent
supply of labor which these plantations required. The small white
planter and the free white laborer found the road to economic success had
become much more difficult. To be a successful planter meant that
he had to begin with substantial capital investments. Capitalist
agriculture substantially altered the social structure of the
colony.
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