Tobacco made Jamestown profitable and a “success.” What are the long term effects of tobacco taking root as a cash crop? What did the colonists need to make a profit off of this crop?

British colonies in the south, ranging from the Chesapeake to the West Indies, focused on the production of cash crops like tobacco and sugar. The focus on plantation agriculture led to large populations of enslaved Africans in these colonies as well as social stratification between wealthy white plantation owners and poor white and black laborers.

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