Male Southern Plantations: The Role Of Slavery In Southern America

In the South, it was very well known for slaves to be working in plantation fields. The often would work cultivating cotton, tobacco, and sugar. Tobacco was a very popular cash crop, but died out due to the harsh conditions it would give the soil. Moreover, southern states were referred to as Cotton Kingdom. The reason being is because in the southern states, cotton was the major cash crop they grew. In addition, more than 50% of the cotton was grown in the south. Additionally, the culture in the South was quite different compared to the slaves that were in the North. The southern slave states culture was determined by plantation owners and families. The slaves were not authorized to be educated, and only the plantation owners had the right to be educated. They were not allowed to attend school and their culture revolved around the plantations. To add in, their economy revolved around the agricultural plantations. The southern grew cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar cane, and indigo. Many of

In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family In The Old South by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger outlines a very unique African American family living in Nashville, TN accounting tales of the trials and tribulations that Sally Thomas, the mother, and her sons had to go through; and how in the end she accomplished her goal. The authors excellently executed the life of this family in an informational and intriguing text by explaining and comparing the different lives and classes of slaves back in that century through Sally and her son’s stories.The detail and the historical pictures in the text help give life and a sense of “realness” and credibility to the situations given to help breathe life into the story, making the story easier to understand and believe.

The Southern Colonies had hopes of creating profit from the export of agricultural goods when they developed a plantation economy; farms would grow single crops, such as rice and tobacco. However, as the agriculture business grew, so did the demand for more workers, but they needed a cheap source labor to rely on. The idea of slavery was brought up, but the Southern Colonies could not enslave the Native Americans because they became difficult due to their independence. As a result, African slaves were used because of how easy it was to enslave them. Many African slaves were taken from their homes, and put in a foreign place; this left them defenseless and afraid. The slave population grew largely, and became a steady source for many single

     In the later 1700’s to 1863, slavery was an intricate part of the South. Slaves were needed for plantation work like planting, caring for, and harvesting crops to maintaining the land. After

People used religion as a way to justify the act of slavery. They believed that God determined people’s places in life, so slavery was considered a “misfortune” controlled by God and not a social evil (Shi and Tindall, 91). Africans were also seen as “heathens” which lead people to believe that they had the right to enslave the Africans (Shi and Tindall, 92) The Africans brought the skills they had in Africa with them which made them very desirable in the American economy. Also, there was the creation of the slave code allowed slave owners more control over their slaves activates and movements (The Virginia Slaves

Southern economy was the center of plantation that cultivated cotton. Many the rich started to carve the plantation to earn money by exporting cotton. They needed a lot of labor and slavery was proper to use. The majority of white southerners did not own slaves because planters monopolized the best land. They could not help taking possession of the land that was not proper to cultivate cotton. Most of them earned a living by self-sufficiency even though the slave population was growing: from 697,624 in 1790 to 3,953,760 in 1860.

Slavery was a very divided issue in early American history. It was the backbone of the southern economy and lifestyle, but also a immoral way to treat people that was contradictory to ideals which America liberated itself upon. Slavery continued to expand because of new economic growth, but many slaves were also freed from their bondage during this time because of religion and the new ideologies that America gained in becoming a country. Most slaves responded to these hardships hardship through active and passive resistance, whereas free African Americans became more outspoken and formed communities in response.

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

Though the majority of Southerners didn’t own slaves, slaves were used in the South to keep the revenue up, and slavery was very much a part of the agricultural lifestyle.

The South considered slaves to be an economic necessity. According to a chart that displays the number of slaves and the amount of cotton produced, the amount of cotton produced appears to be proportional to the number of slaves in the South (Document A). Cotton, which is the main cash crop of the South, is dependent on the slaves picking it. If slavery is abolished, the South’s economy would suffer severely. The South’s fears only increased with the fervor of the Northern abolitionists.

(Cobb, 2015) The south also use one crop plantations, this system was based on agricultural mass production usually a few staple products grow on large plantations such as cotton, tobacco, sugar rice indigo. With the one crop plantation system, slaves was expropriated, while white benefits from crops that were being grown and sold. The term planter has no universally accepted definition but historically in the, Antebellum south Planter generally defines as a person owning property and twenty or more slaves. (Boudless, 2014) It was too hard and expensive for planter (land owner) to grow the crops for themselves to make a decent living. Slaves rights was oppress through free enslave labor to perform and learn mass production distribution. Whites and indenture servant’s and Indians fail to comply for different reason, causing whites to enslave Africans. Slavery was use prominent in the sixteen thorough eighteen century in the south, slaves worked in the fields of the plantations and inside master homes. Plantation economy reap economical off the scale but have historically relied on slavery labor to accomplished profitability particular in the American south. (Boudless, 2014) With slaves doing all the worked, land owner had more fluctuation to experiment and with the crop,

While slavery was a horrific thing that led to the mistreatment of millions of black people, it had the power to last for centuries. When looking closely at historical accounts it becomes easier to see why this horrible practice was able to sustain for so long. One of the reasons was because the economy of Colonial America relied heavily on the labor of slaves. Farming, the slave trade itself, and the harsh treatment of slaves were all driven by the greed of slave owners. Another reason that slavery lasted so long was racism. During this time, the black population was considered inferior to the white population. This helped to promote the cruel behaviors that occurred in slavery. Lastly, many whites actually felt that the slaves were treated

So many people wanted slaves, especially in the South. They had more farms than they could handle on their own. Northern owners wanted them because they would have to do less work. Very few owners treated their slaves nicely and paid them to do work around the house. They would not be treated like family but would get treated a whole lot better than your “typical slave.” Those kinds of circumstances occurred more in the Northern states than the Southern states.

Slavery was crucial to the Southern states as they depended on it to run their plantations,

Slavery was crucial to the Southern states as they depended on it to run their plantations,