<P> Some contemporary scholars argue that the Chesapeake was a more hospitable environment for slaves . It was more common in the Chesapeake for a slave to work alongside his master, an arrangement unheard of in the strict vertical hierarchies of massive Southern plantations . Whites and blacks were more deeply divided in the Deep South, and tasking allowed slave owners to arbitrarily replace individuals who did not meet expectations . Others argue that it is disingenuous to romanticize one incarnation of slavery over another and that neither environment was "hospitable" despite these differences . </P> <P> A culture of expertise surrounded tobacco planting . Unlike cotton or rice, cultivating tobacco was seen as an art form, and buyers understood that behind every crop of good tobacco was a meticulous planter with exceptional skills . Tobacco shipments were "branded" with a signature unique to its planter before they were sent overseas, and guarantors regarded brands as a seal of approval from the planter himself . One planter proclaimed of his branded tobacco, "it was made on the plantation where I live and therefore as I saw to the whole management of it my self (sic), I can with authority recommend it to be exceedingly good ." Even though not necessarily participating in the manual labor, planters took great financial stake in their final product . </P> <P> Furthermore, local reputation and social status varied with the quality of one's leaf . In his book Tobacco Culture, author T.H. Breen writes "quite literally, the quality of a man's tobacco often served as the measure of the man ." Proficient planters, held in high regard by their peers, often exercised significant political clout in colonial governments . Farmers often spent excess profits on expensive luxury goods from London to indicate to others that their tobacco was selling well . Notably, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate was styled after the dwellings of wealthy European aristocrat . </P> <P> American tobacco planters, including Jefferson and George Washington, financed their plantations with sizeable loans from London . When tobacco prices dropped precipitously in the 1750s, many plantations struggled to remain financially solvent . Severe debt threatened to unravel colonial power structures and destroy planters' personal reputations . At his Mount Vernon plantation, Washington saw his liabilities swell to nearly £ 2000 by the late 1760s . Jefferson, on the verge of losing his own farm, aggressively espoused various conspiracy theories . Though never verified, Jefferson accused London merchants of unfairly depressing tobacco prices and forcing Virginia farmers to take on unsustainable debt loads . In 1786, he remarked: </P>

Tobacco was the major cash crop in georgia and south carolina