Slavery provided virtually free labor in the south, but for "agricultural products such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane".
Step-by-step explanation:
The method of cultivation (agriculture) grew in South America when British colonist colonized in Virginia. They separated the territory with wide area to best utilise for farming. This was the reason that their prosperity depended on production of crops, created the slavery due to requirement of agricultural workers. Such plantations yielded significant colony-traded crops, like cotton and tobacco.
The plantation was like one small family-owned town. But the inadequate nutrition, unhealthy living environments and forced labour made slaves more vulnerable than their landlords; disease-related death rates among the slaves were dramatically higher.