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Henry Clay And The American System

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The American System was an economic plan of the United States in early 19th century Baxter (1942) describes it as a program of vigorous economic nationalism dependent on active government intervention. The core advocate of the plan was a politician named Henry Clay, who was then a very influential Congressman and founder of Whig party. It consisted of three conjointly fortifying elements, which include tariffs, preservation of the National Bank and federal subsidies. Clay advocated for an imposition of high taxes on imported goods to protect the US industries from foreign competition. He claimed that the increasing internal demand for goods was to promote the American manufacturers and facilitate the growth of the local industries. Congress …show more content…

The invention of the cotton gin facilitated a need for more slaves as the production of cotton expanded. The fertile new land acquired along Gulf Coast drove the Southerners into dropping tobacco farming in Virginia and Carolinas as the first concentration shift to farming cotton in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The shift was due to the booming of textile industries in the North and across the Atlantic. By 1961, cotton farming had placed the US in a top position economically, since it accounted for two-thirds of the U.S. exports. However, the economic boost changed the Southerners’ attitude towards slavery. According to Bartlett (1993), Congressman Calhoun defended slavery referring it as a necessary evil and pure light. Most Southerners believed that the Northern industrial wage slavery was worse than their …show more content…

Men valued honor above everything else. Men were surpassed to be strong since they were the defenders in the community. A man who was not a farmer was a politician, lawyer or a soldier. Women were only supposed to speak out in anger while defending their children or husbands. Their duties were home based, that is, supervising home staff and entertaining guests. However, only a few rich people lived this way, and are the ones who controlled politics and all policies of the entire society. Torget (2015) explains that majority of the Southerners in fact owned not even one slave while the rich owned not less than six. The middle class owned one or two slaves and worked alongside them in the fields and sold their little surplus locally. The poor lived in the unproductive land in poverty, equally to the slaves although they were free. Slaves had no way to protest any harsh treatment from their masters legally. Black people had no right of testifying before the court against whites who committed crimes to them. Slave-to-Slave crimes they would face trial in a separate slave court which had the authority to rule and sentence with the jury. Slaves lived in inadequate housing. Their masters allowed them to intermarry because it was advantageous in that the children of the slaves meant an addition of wealth to the masters. No slave, no matter the age or gender was exemplary to hard work from sunrise to sunset. Many slaves ended up seeking refuge in

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