what was the first cash crop for southern colonies

The first cash crop for the southern colonies was tobacco. Tobacco was grown on small farms as well as on large plantations in Virginia and Maryland. It was the main reason that Jamestown and North Carolina remained viable in the 1600s and 1700s. The cultivation of tobacco in Virginia became an increasingly lucrative export to England by 1620. The economy of growing cash crops would require a labor force that would be unknown north of Maryland. Slaves and indentured servants, although present in the North, were much more important to the South. They were the backbone of the Southern economy.