At the beginning of the 17th century, both rich and poor Britons see the newly established American colonies as the land of opportunity. As changes in England's economy and word of hardships in America stem the flow of white bond servants, English planters bring more enslaved Africans to America to raise their profitable tobacco, sugar, and rice crops and to provide other forms of labor in the North. Gradually, laws are enacted that define legal status by race, ensuring that Africans and their descendants will be slaves.
Resistance leads to rebellions in South Carolina and New York.