How Did Slavery Cause Racism But Economic Motives

Racism is a socially constructed concept used by multiple groups of people and creates a hierarchy of sorts based purely on the color of a person’s skin or their cultural origins. It has been an idea that has existed since the beginnings of civilization. A more modern iteration of this concept was made prominent in the 16th century as European settlers began to explore different areas of the world, specifically areas in or around Africa. But slavery can be seen back in the 1500s all the way to 1880 and was most likely a leading example of what helped define racism up to the 20th century. In Ali Rattansi’s book, “Racism: A Very Short Introduction” , the author connects how slavery and race are closely tied together. European explorers would ignore the cultures the invaded in order to see these people as nothing more than native groups that were meant to be seen in a subservient role. Slavery would continue to grow across the Atlantic and seen as an institution that created large amounts of wealth for those who could reap the benefits from it. As long as money was being made, slavery persisted and was justified. Race and racism was conceived the way it was because the slave owning system was controlled by European colonizers.

“Racism was used aggressively to divide poor white southerners from slaves. The relationship between the wealthy and the poor was aggressively exploited by the rich white slave holder to ensure the poor whites non-slave holder that they had a similar cause” (Shaping America: Lesson 16). This caused non-slave holding whites to have a similar view as latter. Non-slave holding whites were in direct competition with slaves and more often than not were forced out of work due to the free labor slavery had offered.

The Southern Colonies developed race-based slavery because of the rising need to increase labor and to decrease costs. The move toward profit-based agriculture over subsistence farming meant that there was an expanding need for laborers, which would increasingly expand with success, necessitating a further increase of cheap labor. In addition to being labor intensive, the Southern crops: rice, tobacco, sugarcane, and indigo were grown for cash rather than for immediate need. Technically there is no such thing as enough with a goal as abstract as profit and so would not end with a fulfilled, finite, need but rather with means and a desire to expand. With profit as a goal expansion is only limited by available, usable, acreage and becomes a goal in and of itself. With expansion as a goal, a self-replenishing and unpaid workforce allows for greater profit and thus greater expansion. It was a snowball effect creating a market for humans.

What is slavery? Why did slavery exist? Was slavery the cause of racism? Or was it the other way around? There are still so many unanswered questions about slavery. There is no right answer as to the cause of racism, but one can agree that slavery made a big impact on racial discrimination.

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.

While it is certainly simple to attribute the start of the Civil War solely on the issue of slavery, the issues run much deeper. Even though slavery is one of the underlying causes of the American Civil War, issues regarding political and economic differences are also to blame for the start of the war. However, many of these problems that caused the country to split had their roots in the problem of slavery.

The initial view of the white population that African Americans were inferior to them quickly led to slavery, but there was a definite second motivator. Slavery provided cheap labor to the white elite; this provided the means to improve their own socioeconomic standing while effectively eliminating any possible economic competition from blacks.

In such inhumane conditions, a nation managed to justify the hell that it put Blacks through. How is it humane to enslave a person yet inhumane for the death penalty to be practiced? Living on a double standard, a nation built on civil rights has managed to justify this hell. In such harsh times, the South was frowned upon for slavery. The North was hypocrites for this accusation. Slavery was justified in the South. Throughout the world, one group subjugated another. With these reasons and lies from the opinion that wants to be heard; a nation is able to justify slavery.

Slavery was the main cause of the Civil War because it caused conflict. Abolitionists were people, usually Northerners, fighting against slavery. The disagreement in opinion on slavery caused an immense separation between the North and South. The Civil War was caused by slavery, mostly The Underground Railroad, The Fugitive Slave Act and the Dred Scott Decision.

Abolitionist writer George William Curtis, once wrote, "We are not one people. We are two peoples. We are a people for Freedom and a people for Slavery. Between the two, conflict is inevitable." This quote shows the major conflict of this time period. Tensions between The North and The South had escalated due to a big issue, slavery. This conflict will lead to America`s bloodiest conflict, the Civil War. Slavery became the issue that spilt the United States, causing secession and the Civil War because of the admission of new states, legislation such as the Kansas- Nebraska Act, the nomination and debates of Abraham Lincoln, and the Election of 1860.

Slavery started in America in 1619, when slaves came from Africa to Jamestown. They brought them over to get help with production of crops. In the time of Huckleberry Finn, the slave states were Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina, Maryland, North Carolina, and Delaware. All the other states were known to be free states. When a new state came about, they used the Missouri Compromise line. All states above the line would be free, and anything below the line would be slave states. The slave states justified their use of slaves by saying that they needed help, and that they were kind to the slaves. Slavery helped lead to the Civil War,

Many historians have argued that the Atlantic slave trade was motivated either by race or economics. Personally, I find this to be true. With new European colonies being started around the world, there became a need for a labor force that could help economically and financially in the cheapest way possible. When the people figured out that they could go on voyages to Africa and come back with 200+ sets of hands for manual labor, they exploited this. Slaves would be bought and owned by citizens to help do everyday tasks and a tremendous amount of manual labor. However even though a great portion of slavery was for financial reasons, it soon became a thing due to racism as well. These Africans that were brought over were thought of as “not human” and used this as a reason to participate in the treacherous act that is slavery. Many elements that denominated from economics and racism were the causes for the Atlantic Slave trade.

The idea that American slavery started from prejudice itself, is an idea that is simply not true. The dictionary defines prejudice as, “a preconceived notion that is not based on reason or actual experience.” (Webster’s Dictionary). One can easily see that the Europeans, primarily the English, French, and Portuguese, colonized the New World in a racist manner. There was no misunderstanding when it came to different types of lifestyles for the Europeans, and the Native Americans and Africans. There was some misunderstanding from the different lifestyles, but the Europeans for the most part, were racist because they felt superior to the Africans and Native Americans.

Like many others demoralized cultures during the Atlantic Slave trade period, Africans fell victim to the sixteenth century discovery of Columbus' so called "New World." Europeans used the Atlantic Slave Trade to capitalize on Columbus' so called "Discovery." For more than three centuries, the regions of Africa were in a state of destabilization. More than thirty million Africans were taken out of Africa and put in the Americas and surrounding countries.

In the beginning, slavery was instigated because of cheap profit and monetary power. But a few decades later racism became intertwined as the Europeans needed convincing reasons for enslaving a large group of humans. The solution was to seperate people into different categories based on skin colors.