The number of enslaved Africans in North America increased significantly in the sixteenth century due to labor demand for the economic activity of plantation agriculture, especially the cultivation of cash crops such as tobacco, sugar, rice, and indigo. These crops needed severe labor, and when European invaders extended their plantations, a large workforce was essential. This increase in labor demand led to an upsurge in the importation of enslaved Africans to North America to suit the rising needs of the plantation economy.