The crop that led to the creation of large plantations and great wealth for the elite in the Carolinas was rice. Rice cultivation began in the late 17th century and became the dominant commercial crop by the 1720s, especially in South Carolina's lowcountry, where the warm climate and swampy landscape were ideal for growing rice. This crop required significant capital and labor investment, leading to the development of large plantations worked primarily by enslaved Africans. The wealth generated from rice exports made Carolina planters among the richest colonial elites
. Rice plantations shaped the geography and economy of the region and were central to the rise of a plantation-based society reliant on slave labor. The expertise of African slaves, many from rice-growing regions of Africa, contributed to the successful cultivation techniques used in Carolina rice fields
. Indigo was also an important cash crop later on, but rice was the foundational crop that established the plantation economy and elite wealth in the Carolinas
