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
The North’s economy was based on textiles, shipping, and skilled trades. Their climate was not suited for the same type of agricultural products that the South produced like cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco. Northern states like New England manufactured and shipped goods like guns, clocks, plows and axes (page 399). One reason for the South’s dependence on slavery is because their economy relied on the existence of slave labor. For example, the cultivation of cotton depended largely on slave labor, with 75% of the crop grown on plantations,
Economic and social differences between the north and the south was one of the events of slavery leading up to the Civil War. When the cotton gin was invented in 1793, cotton became a very profitable crop. Before the invention of the cotton gin, it would take one slave a day to remove the seeds from two pounds of cotton. After the invention of the cotton gin, it could be used to clean two pounds of cotton in just half an hour. With the invention of the cotton gin came an increase in the number of plantations willing and wanting to move from other crops to cotton. The south raised rice, sugar, and indigo, but cotton was its main crop. This move from other crops to cotton would cause for a greater need for a larger amount of laborers, meaning a greater need for slaves. The south, becoming a one crop economy, then became more dependent on cotton, thus more dependent on slaves. The north, on the other hand, was less focused on crops and
Slavery is an association of authority and respect where one individual, the plantation owner, owns another individual, the slave. The owner can command the individual to various jobs around the plantation. Slaves were brought from Africa to work in the home, babysit plantation owner 's kids, and the most popular , to work on farms. Women were more common for working in the owner 's homes and watching after the owner 's kids. Where men were more likely to work on farms picking cotton. Slavery was serious and diminishing towards the African American race. Punishment toward slaves included numerous gruesome activities such as being whipped. Slaves had no legal rights. Slaves could not own property, vote, or have control over their family. There was so much expected from slaves to keep the plantation running like it needed too. Without slaves the South would not
Andrew Jackson was born in Waxhaws border of the Carolinas into a family of poverty. His father died before he was born. His mother and brothers died from diseases, which were contracted from the British during the Revolutionary War. Jackson wanted revenge on the "red coats." The War of 1812 was his perfect opportunity. In a brutal battle to keep New Orleans, he defeated the British and became a national hero. In 1828, he became the seventh president of the United States. Although Jackson was a national hero from the Battle of New Orleans, his presidential administration was flawed due to creating the spoils system, sending troops to states that disagreed with him, and the demise of thousands of Native Americans.
Many Americans such as James Monroe and Henry Clay put their ideas into motion by crafting documents and plans to further their respective progress. Monroe, who was president at the time, teamed up with Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to form the Monroe Doctrine. This was a determined effort to end all European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere, this plan was formatted around for major points: (1) the American continents are no longer subjects for future European colonization; (2) Any political system of European that tried to be enforced in the Western Hemisphere is “dangerous to our peace and safety”; (3) the U.S. is not to interfere with any existing European colonies; (4) finally that the United States would not take part in internal affairs or wars between European nations (America Shi, Tindall 309)(week 9 notes). Henry Clay, on the other hand, crafted the American System, a plan to strengthen and unify the United States. Clay promoted the use of high tariffs on imports to block the sale of British goods in the U.S. in order to protect the fragile domestic market from foreign competition. In order to rally support, Clay beckoned the federal government to utilize this influx in revenue to improvements in the West such as roads, canals, and other “internal improvements”. Clay also endorsed a strong national bank to create single national currency and to regulate the
The American System was a plan created by Henry Clay. It had three parts to it, that Henry Clay was hoping would bring the nation closer together, and benefit everyone. It called for a strong banking system that would provide easy and abundant credit, He also put in place a protective tariff. The revenue from the tariff would pay for the third part of the American System, the creation of roads and canals, mainly into the new Ohio Valley. Food and equipment would flow freely over these new routs, increasing trade and business greatly throughout most of the states. The American System of Henry Clay never came to fruition, however. President Madison deemed it unconstitutional, and instead, Congress voted to distribute $1.5 million to the states,
In 1824, there was only one political party, which was the Democratic-Republicans. The election of 1824 had no candidate getting the majority of the votes. Henry Clay used an advantage to make sure that Jackson stayed out of office and J.Q. Adams to become president. This political corruption made Jackson angry, so he decided to go against Adams in the 1828 election. We know that in the 1820's, states had allowed white men to vote. J.Q. Adams didn't want to campaign while Jackson campaigned to win over average males. Jackson had won by a landslide by appealing to the common folks and his presidency is known as "The Era of The Common Man." Before the inauguration of Jackson, inaugurations used to be small and private, but he made it public in
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
From the country 's most punctual days, Congress has battled with the natural issue of the national government 's right part in encouraging financial advancement. Henry Clay 's "American System," formulated inside the burst of patriotism that took after the War of 1812, stays one in all the chief customarily essential specimens of an administration supported project to orchestrate and adjust the country 's agribusiness, trade, and business.
Henry Clay was the first Speaker of the House that really helped to establish the position and increase the power. Clay served three terms as Speaker of the House and in those years demonstrated how his tactics were effective as well as successful. Henry Clay was personable, and his youth and assertiveness made him a popular choice for Speaker. Clay used his position to place his allies in important committees to achieve these goals. As Clay gained clout in the House of Representatives, he was able to introduce his American System and ideas founded in the American Colonization Society. Henry Clay’s greatest accomplishment as Speaker of the House was the drafting of the Missouri Compromise, which gained him the title of the Great
Due to this, the economy of America at this period of time was centred around cotton and as Clement Eaton stated, 'After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the tempo of life in the South quickened.' The industry was able to achieve large profits through the use of slaves-the cheapest labour of all-and eventually 'Three-fourths of the world's supply of cotton came from the southern states.'
Henry Clay was born on April 12, 1777, in Hanover County, Virginia. He was raised in a modest middle classed home; he was one of the nine children born to Reverend John and Elizabeth Hudson Clay. His first link into his American history came at an early age when He was 3, he had watched the British soldiers ransack his family home. His political career had kicked off in 1803 when he was elected to the General Assembly in Kentucky. Voters were drawn toward Clay's Jeffersonian politics, which early on saw him push for a liberalization of the state's constitution. He also strongly opposed the Acts of 1798, which were known as the Alien as well as the Sedition. When Henry Clay was working as an attorney, it had brought a lot of great success as
Henry Clay, Sr. (April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer and planter, statesman, and skilled orator who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He served three non-consecutive terms as Speaker of the House of Representatives and served as Secretary of State under President John Quincy Adams from 1825 to 1829. Clay ran for the president in 1824, 1832 and 1844, while also seeking his party's nomination in 1840 and 1848. However, he was unsuccessful in all of his attempts to reachthe presidency. Despite his presidential losses, Clay remained a dominant figure in the Whig Party, which he helped found in the 1830s. A leading war hawk, Speaker Clay favored war with Britain and played a significant
Therefore, the population of slaves started to grow again in the 1790s and spread into other lands that became the cotton belt (Clifford, 2005). At round 1793, cotton cultivation expanded into large scale as a result of the invention of gin. The slaves in the southern states were used as laborers in spite of the American Revolution’s natural rights philosophy (Clifford, 2005). According to Clifford (2005), the slave owners started to improve the lives of their slaves on the cotton plantations after a
With Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became very profitable. This machine was able to reduce the time it took to separate seeds from the cotton. However, at the same time the increase in the number of plantations willing to move from other crops to cotton meant the greater need for a large amount of cheap labor, i.e. slaves. Thus, the southern economy became a one crop economy, depending on cotton and therefore on slavery. On the other hand, the northern economy was based more on industry than agriculture. In fact, the northern industries were purchasing the raw cotton and turning it into finished goods. This disparity between the two set up a