This is the change made by planters in the Caribbean to start producing sugarcane as their main crop and to do away with producing tobacco as their main crop, because there was a decline in the tobacco market in the Caribbean. This event took place in the 17th century. Tobacco was produced on small plots of land , and because sugar need much more land, the small tobacco estates amalgamated to form large plots. Tobacco was usually grown and cultivated by white indentured servants, but when sugar became the main export crop, a new source of labour was used. This new source of labour used were the African slaves.