The southern colonies practiced indentured servitude and slavery because cash crops such as tobacco and sugar required many workers. the fishing and shipping industries required many workers. imprisoned debtors were brought from Africa to settle the colonies. indentured servitude and slavery were not allowed in the Caribbean colonies.

Option: Cash crops such as tobacco and sugar required many workers.

Explanation:

The southern colonies indulge in agriculture because of its climatic and geographical condition. Farmers and plantation owners required labors in fields to grow crops like tobacco and sugar. The southern colonists began to use indentured servants and later shift to slavery because they consider being profitable. Slaves were required to work as domestic assistants in white colonists house as well as in plantations. For the planters, slavery became the backbone of the economy of the South.

Indentured servitude and slavery were very common in the Caribbean as a source of cheap labor, and many colonists in the south came from there bringing those practices with them in order to cover the massive demmand for workers at lower costs. Thereby the 1st option is correct "tobacco and sugar plantations required many workers" to develop American colonies in the south.