Historic Cash Crops of the American South

Key Crops

• Cotton – Dominant cash crop, fueled the antebellum economy.
• Tobacco – Vital in Virginia, North Carolina; major export.
• Rice – Grown in South Carolina, Louisiana; labor-intensive.
• Sugarcane – Louisiana's climate ideal; sugar for domestic/international markets.
• Sweet Potatoes – Staple food crop, widely cultivated.
• Peanuts – Versatile, nutritional; later commercialized.
• Corn (Maize) – Sustenance and animal feed.
• Soybeans – 20th-century rise; protein, oil, processed foods.
• Fruits & Vegetables – Peaches, citrus, tomatoes, greens, etc.

Crop mix evolved with technology, markets, and labor systems (enslaved to sharecropping to mechanized).