Early Commercial Agriculture

Early Commercial Agriculture. . , Once the Native American population was annihilated, dislocated, or marginalized by the public s well as private efforts, the type of crop grown had a great impact on the new residents of Edmondson's Reserve., The first successful crop shipped to Europe from Maryland and grown on Edmondson's Reserve in the late 17th century was tobacco, and tobacco, a very labor-intensive year-round undertaking, would be the reason for slavery in Maryland. Indeed, by the census of 1790, 57% of the slaves in the U.S. were in Maryland and Virginia, two states best referred to as the "Tobacco South" versus the "Cotton South" states of the Deep South where labor-intensive crops like cotton, rice and sugar were grown., Tobacco soon faded on the Eastern Shore due in part to soil depletion and unstable foreign markets. As early as 1750 the value of grain exports matched tobacco. By 1790 Maryland was in a "Grain Boom", which required less, more seasonal labor. Owners of land like nearby Doncaster began to switch to tenant farmers., Some local slaves were sold to satiate the appetite for labor in the Cotton South and some slaves fled like Sydney Still. But many more enslaved people were freed, like Sydney Still's husband from Greensboro who then moved to New Jersey., Many other freed slaves remained in Maryland and became small farmers who bought and freed their enslaved relatives. As the Civil War approached, 79% of African Americans in Caroline County were free. LAndowners and tenant farmers, both white and black, now grew grains on former tobacco plantations like Edmondson's Reserve.