Causes Of Slavery In 1850

As we already noted – in the 1800s expediency of slavery was disputed. While industrial North almost abandoned bondage, by the early 19th century, slavery was almost exclusively confined to the South, home to more than 90 percent of American blacks (Barney W., p. 61). Agrarian South needed free labor force in order to stimulate economic growth. In particular, whites exploited blacks in textile production. This conditioned the differences in economic and social development of the North and South, and opposing viewpoints on the social structure. “Northerners now saw slavery as a barbaric relic from the past, a barrier to secular and Christian progress that contradicted the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and degraded the free-labor aspirations of Northern society” (Barney W., p. 63).

The introduction of Africans to America in 1619 set off an irreversible chain of events that effected the economy of the southern colonies. With a switch from the expensive system of indentured servitude, slavery emerged and grew rapidly for various reasons, consisting of economic, geographic, and social factors. The expansion of slavery in the southern colonies, from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to just before America gained its independence in 1775, had a lasting impact on the development of our nation’s economy, due to the fact that slaves were easy to obtain, provided a life-long workforce, and were a different race than the colonists, making it easier to justify the immoral act.

Document B is a journal entry from a man named Charles Mackay on his experience in the North. It gives us what blacks should be able to do and what restriction the had. According to Doc B, “We shall not make a black man a slave; we shall not buy or sell him; but we shall not associate with him”. This document tells us what rights black’s should have and what restrictions they could have.

The crops grown on plantations and the slavery system changed significantly between 1800-1860. In the early 1800s, plantation owners grew a variety of crops – cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, hemp, and wheat. Cotton had the potential to be profitable, but there was wasn’t much area where cotton could be grown. However, the invention of the cotton gin changed this - the cotton gin was a machine that made it much easier to separate the seeds from cotton. Plantation owners could now grow lots of cotton; this would make them a lot of money. As a result, slavery became more important because the demand for cotton was high worldwide. By 1860, cotton was the main export of the south. The invention of the cotton gin and high demand for cotton changed

In the antebellum south, the Large Plantation – agricultural way of life dominated the whole society. Only 25% of white southerners owned slaves and most did not live in mansions but in dark, cramped, two-room cabins. Cotton was the crucial cash crop of the South, but it was not the only crop grown there. Corn, sugar, rice, and tobacco were also grown – but Cotton was king, and the most labor intensive of all these crops. Not only was the South reliant on cotton, but the northern factories relied on the raw material as well as England. The South was the world’s largest producer and from 1815 to 1860 it represented over ½ the U.S. exports.

“By 1861, the start of the Civil War, Southern slave plantations supplied more than 80 percent of surging world demand for cotton. Britain alone bought one billion pounds, as did the rest of Europe and the United States.” 3 “The south, able to grow cotton very profitably at much lower price than ever before (or anywhere else), became the natural empire of King Cotton as the demand of the British and New England mills became insatiable.”4 The demand for cotton from England and New England prompted the expansion of cotton farms and plantations that eventually began pushing out the food-crops. Smaller food-crop farmers sold out to larger plantation owners creating a shortage of food growth. The South’s economy began to depend on the cotton crop.

Slavery in North America first began when the first African slaves arrived in the American colony of Jamestown in 1619. They were first used to aid in the production of the American “cash crop” tobacco. From that point, white land owners depended greatly on the work of slaves. This did not seem an issue at the time but as more people came over to the Americas and more people developed their own ideas of freedom, a silent war broke within the country. The first great schism, the first act of cold war, was the 3/5 Compromise in which it was decided that an African servant was only counted as 3/5 of a person and therefore did not have a strong presence within the government . This was implemented in 1787, long before talk of Civil War would begin. Fast forward three decades, another rift began to spread across America. The Missouri Compromise. At this point in time, slavery was a hot topic. More people spoke openly about their opinions on the topic and that was met with opposition. With the expansion of American territory, there was the decision of if slavery would be allowed or not in the new territories. Missouri was brought into the nation as a slave state while Maine entered as a free state. The compromise on this though, was that “no slave state shall enter into the Union above the 36 30’ line” . It was James Monroe to sign this bill into effect. In another three decades, the Compromise of 1850 would wipe out all evidence of the Missouri Compromise. 1850 had five major

Cotton became one of, if not the most, profitable crop to grow. Along with the cotton gin’s invention, mass-production became easily accessible, however it required immense labor to achieve it, which of course, was completed by slave labor. This connection is likely the very reason that slavery became such a prominent issue. Before the creation of the cotton gin, rice and tobacco were the staple crops of the region. Many believe that if not for the rapid expansion of the cotton industry, the need for slave labor would have never grown to the level it did, and, at the very least, conflict between the North and South may have never

The South economy was almost entirely built around slavery. It’s economy made millions in profits off of cotton. After the invention of the cotton gin, cotton could now be produced faster than ever before. This increased the demand for more slaves. 4.9 million bales of cotton were being harvested annually, and most of it was exported through Northern ports. Slaves were also sold in slave auctions by slave owners for thousands of dollars each. They were closely examined for appealing traits such as muscularity, age, and gender and were then priced accordingly. These examples show how dependent slaves were to the Southern economy.

In the late 1800s America’s North and South were very different, indeed while the South’s economy was constructed on the backs of African slaves, which provided easy cheap labor. About one million of the four million slaves in America at the time worked in industry, construction and mining. The North had about 90% of all the factories in America at the time which produced textiles. The North’s labor was expensive, and their workers were lively. There were a multitude of immigrants coming to the North to work, however this kept the wages of the North from growing very quickly.

A major factor in the South’s economic rise was the expansion of slavery. During the first half of the 19th century, America began to acquire new territory. In “The River of Dark Dreams” by Walter Johnson, Johnson explains that with these new states, arguments about whether slavery should continue or be abolished altogether became more and more contentious. Given the Southern economy’s dependence on slave-produced cotton, Southern states vehemently pushed for slavery in the new states so the cotton industry could continue and expand. With this expansion, however, came a newer, harsher form of slavery— one that thrived

Ever since cotton became the majority of the crops grown in the South, Southerners used slaves to plant, grow, and harvest the crops for them. But as the demand for cotton was growing, so was the need for slaves. Slaves were treated very harshly and did not have any rights as ‘property’ of white farmers, in the North and the South. Abolitionists, or people who wanted to abolish, or end, slavery, fought and spoke to end this cruelty.

Olmsted, a man who visited the South on many occasions, wrote that the Southern states lacked “the characteristics features of a free-labor community, including an abundance and variety of skilled labor, a home market for variety of crops, dense settlements [and] a large body of small proprietors” (OBF 34). The South’s community was extremely different from that in the North. Slavery in the south caused a lack of diversification of crops. Cotton became an important crop in the South, so slavery stayed vital importance in Southern

The North and the South had diverse economies. The South’s economy was farming, or work mostly based on agriculture. Some southerners operated or owned large cotton plantations. Countless more had small farms and produced food products such as corn, or raised cattle and pigs. These few planters ordinarily had merely a few enslaved people or none at all. While on the other hand the Northern states had a lot of farmers as well, but then again the economy of the North was shifting. Cities in the North were developing rapidly and industrial units were being erected throughout the region. In these industrial units individuals made textiles, shoes, tools, and other goods. By 1860 less than half of the individuals in the North were farmers.

The different ways of living developed between the 1830s and 1860s (Schultz, 2009). The South’s way of life was considerably dissimilar from that of the North. Cotton played a major role in the south, because they realized with a successful cotton production there was an increased potential to become very rich. However, cotton production required slaves and land resulting in no talks of gradual emancipation. Moreover, because the South lacked cities and jobs to offer immigrants, very few migrated south. Surprisingly, the majority of white southerners did not own slaves. Most were yeoman farmers who sought to be independent. In addition, the slaveowners that did own slaves actually owned very few. Furthermore, the majority of slaves