Compare And Contrast Chesapeake And West Indies

The British colonies in the Chesapeake, southern Atlantic and West Indies changed continuously throughout the seventeenth century. One way that they had changed was not only basing more of their economy on agriculture but incorporating more slave labor into the colony lifestyles as well. In 1612, a tobacco rush swept through Virginia with a rising demand for the crop, while at the same time, the demand for sugar cane in the West Indies began to grow. With constant demands for these crops and more land needing tending to, slave labor was soon incorporated into the lifestyles of the colonies. In 1650 Virginia, slaves, “…made up approximately 14 percent of the colony’s population” (33) and were at a ratio of four to one in the West Indies. Many