Slavery fueled and stimulated their economy as a means of inexpensive labor, particularly in the cotton and tobacco industries. It was effective for financial growth in a mercantile environment. The slaves, being the single unhappy part of this equation, hoped for change in the form of freedom. With the slow switch in gears from the traditional economical approach to the recent concept of capitalism led by the Enlightenment, slaves could cling to the hope that their owner's would release them as useless. That, combined with the blind and naïve hope of a successful rebellion led slaves to become more sanguine about freedom than would typically be seen.
