by Michael Hill, 2006 Additional research provided by Peter A.
Coclanis, Stephanie Hall, Will M. Heiser, Charles LeCount, and
W.W. Yeargin. Part i: Overview; Part ii: Improvements in Farming
Technology and the Burgeoning of "Mega Farms"; Part iii: Changes
in the Agricultural Labor Force; Part iv: Field Crops,
Livestock, and Other Agricultural Products; Part v: References
Part iii: Changes in the Agricultural Labor Force For much of
North Carolina’s history, the primary source of agricultural
labor for the vast majority of small farms was the farmer’s own
family, including small children, whose abilities and
productivity grew with age. Indentured servants frequently
worked on larger farms and plantations, outnumbering African
slaves throughout the colony’s first half century. As the lowest
class of whites, these ‘‘Christian’’ servants had voluntarily
bound themselves to a master by a written contract for a
predetermined number of years to ‘‘redeem’’ their passage to the
colony. Also included in this group were