Pros And Cons Of Slavery

The industrial revolution during the 19th Century led to the rapid expanse of cotton production in America. Several new inventions began to be used which could more efficiently use cotton and other similar materials to aid in the production of textiles. During that time, the textile industry was big and the demand for cotton continued to grow however the price of cotton never increased to match the demand. Slaves were taken advantage of and because their labor was so cheap it was beneficial to slave owners to collect cotton using slave labor and trade the cotton for a profit. Great Britain was the worlds most powerful country and a large part of that countries industrial life was cotton textiles. America became Britain’s biggest trade partner for cotton and the increase in trade allowed America to build on its own and gain a bigger variety of goods through trade. The cotton industry was one of the biggest influences of America’s growth in the 19th Century and slave labor was used to ensure its expansion could continue throughout the years.

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).

During the 19th century slavery was a very prominent and controversial issue between the north and the southern states. In the South, most people believed that slavery was a profitable way of life and if the slavery was to be abolished it would then affect their economy. On the hand the northern had different opinions about slavery and intended to stop it. The fact that the perception were different between the two led to a very difficult situation in resolving the issue.

Slavery. A topic that should never be brought up in a conversation, should never be said casually, and should never happen. Slavery, despite being illegal in every country, is still going on, and at different odds. Slavery has many forms. Many of which, only the cruelest of minds can think up. Slavery is different than in the 1800s because it has many more forms, has more potential slaves, and more profit.

The time period from 1775 to 1830 was full of changes. The United States was developing into its own country, with its own freedoms. As the government began to settle, the issue of slavery was ever present. Nobody was quite sure of how to handle slavery. While some people fought to have slavery abolished, others completely opposed the idea of no longer having slaves. It was during this time period that many slaves managed to gain their freedom; however slavery as an institution continued to expand. Even though the many states passed laws outlawing the practice of slavery, the slave trade in the states that still allowed slavery grew immensely.

Abolitionism became increasingly growing in size since 1821 when William Lloyd Garrison assisted in writing an anti-slavery newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation with Benjamin Lundy. In 1831 it rapidly grew in popularity when William Lloyd Garrison started The Liberator. There was an increasing start to the abolitionist’s in America. Slavery was very big in the South for growing “cash crops”, however in the North there was not a need for slaves. As a result of that the majority of the abolitionist’s inhabited the North with organized speeches, meetings, and newspapers ran. There started out only as small revolts and fights that then turned into a big deal. For example with Kansas choosing whether or not to become a free or slave

The North, a primarily industrialized society, never had any use of slavery in the first place. However, the North relied heavily on the South for its textile industries and did not begin opposing slavery until abolitionist movements began in the 1830’s. During these movements, abolitionists pushed for the immediate elimination of slavery; while this idea did not appeal to most northerners, it began the political approach of preventing the spread of slavery. Abolitionists ultimately hit home in the North through William Lloyd Garrison and the media. Garrison, a famous abolitionist, radically opposed slavery in his newspaper The Liberator, which would turn many northerners against slavery for the next 20 to 30 years.

Slavery was practiced throughout the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, as African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation. However, as the new nation began to become demographically and economically divided, the debate over slavery was provoked. Need for cheap labor for the demand of cotton solidified the central importance of slavery to the South’s economy, whereas slavery was not as economically viable in the industrialized northern states as it was in southern states. The South called slavery a ‘necessary evil’ whereas the North referred to it as ‘the peculiar institution’ highlighting their sectional divisions. The North questioned the morality of slavery resulting in a growing abolition

During the period of 1830-1860 slavery existed throughout the United States. The topic of slavery has a long history in the United States, beginning with the slaves used to cultivate tobacco in the southern colonies. When writing the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers realized they could not include any articles against slavery, for it would lead to the South not agreeing upon it. In the 1830’s to 1860’s, attitudes towards the institution of slavery varied throughout social classes and regions, ultimately settling with the North coming out against the expansion of slavery and the South for it.

Without the ideas from William Lloyd Garrison, the idea of abolitionism would not have been a big thing in the time period. William Lloyd Garrison was one of the most important reformers, because he was a newspaper journalist, and he created many abolitionist news stories. This was important because he was able to spread his ideas about anti-slavery, and why he thought it was immoral and evil. Since he was a newspaper journalist, many people were able to read his papers, and this would mean that he would be able to get his point across. The newspaper he created was called “The Liberator”, and this was an anti-slavery newspaper in Boston. This means that he was an abolitionist, because he was against slavery, and tried to make slaves

While in Baltimore, Garrison made his first notable mark on anti-slavery activism when he went to jail rather than pay a fine for criminal libel. A New England slave trader pressed charges on Garrison after he denounced him. Released after serving seven weeks in jail, Garrison returned to Boston and established the Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper. On January 1, 1831, he published his first issue of the new weekly newspaper. Within the contents of his newspaper, Garrison left his readers with no doubt about his refusal to compromise with the sin of slavery and became the apostle of a new theory - Immediate Abolition. Garrison's outspoken stand in favor of immediate freedom of slaves made him and his

Many men and woman were desperately needed to work on the land. The slave’s owners where white bond servants paying their passage across the ocean from Europe through indentured labor, eased but did not solve any of their problems. Slaves were mainly economical on large farms where they labored intensive cash crops, including tobacco, cotton, rice, sugar, and many other farming products that were able to be traded and exported. By the end of the American Revolution, slavery was finally proven unprofitable in the North, so it started dying out. In the South the institution was becoming less and less useful to farmers as tobacco prices fluctuated and began to drop rapidly. That’s is when the cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney, which “created the growth of southern slavery again and was the central place of cotton in the world economy” (class notes). The cotton replaced the tobacco leading to the South’s main cash crop and slavery became profitable again. That made the international slave trade rise. Although, majority of the Southerners did not own any slaves at all. But, by 1860 the South’s abnormality institution was impossible to separate from the regions economy.

William Lloyd Garrison was a very influential reformer of the mid-1800’s. His main goal, as a leader for abolition, was to simply show people how immoral slavery was, and as a result, have more people join his campaign to end it. In 1830, he published a newspaper, called “The Liberator,” that declared his uncompromisable position on the moral outrage of slavery. Reaching thousands globally. He then founded the American Anti-slavery society. With support he traveled

In the early years of the 19th century, slavery was more than ever turning into a sectional concern, such that the nation had essentially become divided along regional lines. Based on economic or moral reasoning, people of the Northern states were increasingly in support of opposition to slavery, all the while Southerners became united to defend the institution of slavery. Brought on by profound changes including regional differences in the pattern of slavery in the upper and lower South, as well as the movement of abolitionism in the North, slavery in America had transformed from an issue of politics into a moral campaign during the period of 1815-1860, ultimately polarizing the North and the South to the point in which threats of a Southern disunion would mark the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 (Goldfield et. al, The American Journey, p. 281).

In the land of the free, saying slavery is a dark part of the United States’ history would be an understatement. From the early 1600’s until the abolition of the practice in 1865, slavery would be a common sight amongst plantations. The slaves would not stand idly in their predicament, learning how to improve their situations and sometimes reaching compromises or rebelling against slave masters. Slavery during the antebellum United States encompassed the ideals of whites in the North and South, the influential relationships between the whites and blacks, and the controversial lives the slaves led.