Slavery started because people liked having other people work for free, so they enslaved others. They were brought by ships from Africa. They would usually work on farms and ranches. The jobs were different because of the climate. One type of climate made it possible to grow cotton, another to grow tobacco, another for crops, and so on. They were important because they were free. Since wealthy land owners didn't have to pay workers, they got extremely rich because they had almost no losses at all.
Slaves were important to the colonial economy because the more slaves you had the more money you gained from either selling them or off of their hard work and laboring.
