The colonies came to depend on enslaved Africans because they were focused on agriculture and needed manual labor.
During this time, in primarily the South, the main source of income was by using agriculture. Cash crops were planted, which were crops that sold for high amounts of money overseas. Some cash crops included things like indigo, tobacco, and later on, cotton.
Big farms, called plantations, were soon built. This meant that a lot of manual labor was needed. First, indentured servants were used. These were people who would work for years in order to pay off the debt they owed, which was normally passage to America. This did cost money though, so farmers turned to an even cheaper option, which was slaves.
Soon, people started using enslaved Africans to work on their farms. These were people who were bought over on the Middle Passage, a leg of the Triangular Trade.
