Survival of Slavery in The Southern Colonies

Environmentally slaves were the optimum labor force for the southern colonies. Slaves, coming from a warmer, more humid African climate, were much more able to adapt to the cliate of the southern colonies. The European indentured servants on the other hand were much more susceptible to the heat and humidity of the climate because they came from a more temperate, cooler climate. This made the slaves a much wiser choice for labor, as they would most often live longer in the harsh labor and climate of southern plantation life. Also, tying into economic benefits, the African slaves were experts at rice cultivation. The climate in the southern colonies was conducive to rice cultivation. However the English landowners did not have the expertise to grow and harvest the rice. Africans provided that expertise. Because they and their ancestors had grown rice in Africa, the slaves were able to grow rice in the southern colonies also, providing large economic gains for the land owners by utilizing the climate and their slaves know-how.

Politically the southern land owners used a series of laws called the Slave Codes to subjugate, and oppress the slave population. Slaves would sometimes convert to Christianity. The debate in Europe at the time was if it was really ethical to enslave fellow Christians. The slave codes solved the problem. They stated that a slave that converted to Christianity had no claims to freedom because of that, that it was completely legal to own a converted Christian slave. This solved a major religious quandary for the land owners and opened the path for more slaves without having to worry about them claiming a right to freedom. Another example of these codes was a law determining the status of a child as a slave. The law stated that the status of the mother would become the status of the child. So if the mother was free, the child was free, if the mother was a slave, the child was a slave, with no inclusion of who the father of the child was. This law cleared up any confusion and stopped any slaves’ convoluted claims for freedom because of background or parentage. The slave codes helped to demoralize and oppress the slaves, so discouraging them in the hopes that they wouldn’t claim freedom, either peaceably or violently.

The slave trade in the Southern colonies survived because of several defining factors. Economically, the cheapness of slaves compared to the large profit margin from the crops they harvested, encouraged the growth and continual usage of slaves in the  southern colonies. Environmentally, the Africans natural hardiness and ability to cope with the Southern climate better than the Europeans, made them the primary labor source for the South. And Politically, the slave codes oppressed the African people, and cleared up many muddy claims to freedom made by slaves. These factors were pivotal in slavery surviving as a viable institution in the Southern Colonies.