Chesapeake settlements were founded in the expectation of relying upon white labor of one kind or another – and  Tobacco, which son became the staple crop, did not request slave labor in the way rise or, later, Cotton would. A decline in the English birthrate and the opening up of new colonies to the north of Maryland and Virginia reduced the supply of indentured servants. possibly for the first time in American history, but certainly not for the last, greater instance of black inferiority was seen as a means of reducing tension among whites.