Respuesta :
Answer:
a. They contributed to the increasing reliance of Virginia and Maryland on african slave labor.
Explanation:
The Virginia colony was founded in 1607. Maryland colony was founded in 1632. A plantation-based economy developed in both of those colonies, with tobacco as the main cash crop. Initially they relied on indentured servants coming over from England to supply their labor needs. An indentured servant is someone in a position of poverty who binds himself to an employer for a fixed period of time, sometimes to pay off debts owed. With opportunities like the cheap land William Penn offered in the Pennsylvania colony (founded 1681), poorer settlers coming to America had an option other than indentured servitude. The economic conditions in England also had improved for many, so there were simply less laborers available willing to bind themselves to indentured servant contracts. Penn's establishment of religious toleration in Pennsylvania also drew many other non-traditional religious types (not just Quakers) to his colony.
With the supply of cheap labor drying up for the Virginia and Maryland colonies, they began to turn more to the slaves from Africa as a labor source for their plantation economies.