The environment was better in the West Indies than in the English mainland colonies.
Sugar cane requires a hot tropical climate to grow and also needs a high number of workers who can tolerate the conditions.
The English mainland colonies ranged from current day Maine to Georgia, north to south, and the Atlantic coast to the Appalachian Mountains (east to west). In none of these areas was the weather warm enough for a long enough period of time to grow the sugar cane crop. The West Indies are in the Caribbean and their location provided the warm, tropical environment. Indigenous peoples were first used to work the crop but they were too familiar with the land and not all with the crop. African slaves were brought to the Caribbean to farm the sugar cane because they could tolerate the weather and were familiar with the crop.
