In fact, African slaves really had no rights which the master was obliged to respect.

The supply of African labor seemed to be endless, and many masters found it cheaper to overwork a slave and to replace him when he died, rather than take care of him while he lived.

In short, the plantation experience was a brutalizing one.
In the beginning, the major plantation crop had been tobacco, It could be grown efficiently on small plantations of twenty or thirty acres.

The tobacco plant needed constant, careful attention throughout the season, and this meant that the number of raw, unskilled laborers that was needed was relatively small.
However, when the new colony of Virginia entered the tobacco field in the early seventeenth century, it was able to produce larger quantities of tobacco at a lower price.

The Caribbean islands were hit by a severe economic depression.