Why did the plantation system develope in the South?

A. Northern farms would not be able to compete with the plantations.

B. Southern industry could not compete with northern industry.

C. The South developed cash crops that needed a large labor force.

D. The plantations would be able to attract laborers from the North.Why did the plantation system develope in the South?
We have plantations today but we don't call them that. When you have a large area of land where you grow a particular crop on, your work force must greatly increase to be able to tend that land. Today's plantations are quite typically owned by big corporations (which in turn ay be family owned) and worked by a work force that gets paid for what they do. They also rely heavily on machines for planting, watering, and harvesting of their crop.



The plantations of the 18th and 19th centuries weren't just any old farms, they were by and large meant for the growing of cash crops such as tobbaco and cotton. Hundreds of acres of land were required to make a plantation highly profitable. It takes X number of people just to tend all the plants on a quarter acre of land. As that area increases, so to does the number needed to tend the total acreage. And so to increases the number of plants with which one can make a profit. The more plants you can grow, the more profit you can make and the larger your work force has to be.



Cotton and toacco were major cash crops. Yes, plantations could and did offer their owners other ways of making a profit. But their primary source of income was from these cash crops.



Let's say it takes two people to tend a quarter acre worth of cotton which allows a profit of $20 in a single harvesting. It thus takes eight people to tend an acree and brings in $80. Now if we raise that to a hundred acres we're then talking eight hundred people required to tend the cotton fields and those fields bringing in $8,000. Keep in mind that in the Civil War until 1864 a Union Army private was making $13 a month or $156 a year. We tend to make more money now than folks did in the 18th and 19th centuries, so figure that $4,000 a harvest then was probably more like $40,000 today.



Keep in mind none of those figures that are anywhere near accurate and are merely meant to illustrate the importance of cash crops at that time and a large labor force needed to tend those crops. Well, none are accurate save for the monthly pay of a Union private which comes from the appendicies of "The 1865 Customs of Service for Non-commissioned Officers and Soldiers" Which explains that on June 20, 1864, made retroactive to May 1st of that same year, privates pay was raised to $16 a month. The privates pay was specifically selected to give an idea what folks were making on a monthly basis.



So, the correct answer is C.Why did the plantation system develope in the South?
C. The South developed cash crops that needed a large labor force.