The major reason there were more African Americans enslaved in the South than the North in the 1700s was the rise of the plantation economy. The South's warm climate and long growing season made it ideal for growing labor-intensive crops such as cotton, tobacco, and rice. These crops required a large labor force, and enslaved African Americans were the primary source of labor on Southern plantations. In the North, the economy was more diversified and there was less demand for enslaved labor. As a result, the number of enslaved African Americans in the North was much smaller than in the South.