Final answer:
The labor on plantations in the Southern Colonies was primarily performed by enslaved African Americans who produced key cash crops like cotton and sugar, contributing significantly to the wealth of the region.
Step-by-step explanation:
On plantations in the Southern Colonies, most of the labor was done by enslaved African Americans. These enslaved individuals were involved in a range of tasks, such as clearing land, planting, and harvesting crops, including sugar and cotton, which were some of the most labor-intensive crops. By the 1850s, they produced 75% of the world's cotton, generating significant wealth for the South's slave-holding elite.
Women and men were both employed in a variety of roles, with men working as carpenters, blacksmiths, and machinists, and women as cooks, seamstresses, weavers, and midwives. Despite the heavy reliance on slave labor, both indentured servants and, to a lesser extent, free laborers sometimes performed agricultural labor on these plantations as well.