Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism

    In addition to the history of slavery in the U.S. Foner also talks about not only the South 's dependence on slavery, but the North as well. Even though the Northern states abolished slavery, cotton was necessary for making textiles in the industrial factories in the North. As slavery continued so did the need for it, and the economy began to rely on it. It was especially important in the 19th century. Even with the North against slavery, the South kept it, because it was important to make money.

     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

Was slavery an economic engine for the Southern economy before the Civil War? Men like Senator and businessman James Henry Hammond would say yes immediately without a second thought. People like Hammond believed that slavery in these times were critical to the growth of the southern economy. They made points such as that agricultural sales were a main percentage of business in the south and with the large area of fertile land that slave ownership was a necessary evil. Along with those, the decades preceding the civil war, the north began to industrialize, which in turn created a large demand for cotton, which was heavily supported by slavery. Not only was slavery a supporting crutch for the immense cotton market, but also slave trade proved to be a highly profitable market of his own. Finally, from the perspective of a plantation owner as a business enterprise, owning slaves proved to be most effective by implementing business strategies, much like Henry James Hammond’s. Without slavery, small planters would have been unable to make a steadfast profit, leaving the cotton industry to rely on large plantation owners who would mainly invest their fortune in British luxurious imports, instead of diversifying and reinvesting in schooling or infrastructure. I personally believe that James Henry Hammond and others were correct, with exception to my ethical beliefs, that slavery was a key factor in the growth and preservation of

During the early 17th century slavery was being practiced in the South for over 350 years. They were forced to work the production of tobacco, crops, and later cotton. When the cotton grin was evented in 1793 along with the growing demand product in Europe. The slaves had become a use to the South and it formed a foundation for their economy. Going into the late 18th century there were problems with slavery and they are the abolitionist movement, the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott Decision, and Abraham Lincoln.

Slavery a practise that took absolute freedom away from African people for over 500 sometimes it is even referred to as the ‘African Holocaust’ because the estimated lives lost because of the slave trade is thought to be up to 100 million. And in 1691 this hideous practise was introduced to America and continued for another 250 years and it was only in the 18th century that America began to question the morality of slavery. This lead to a divide in the American people you were either pro or anti slavery. Due to geography Southern states benefited much more from slavery than Northern states did because they had the environment the could sustain plantations and their population was lower and less condensed. Northern states however due of the advent of industrialism did not need or benefit economically from slavery and because of higher importance placed on education and immigration there was a growing diversity of cultures and people so they were more aware of the moral issues involved with a practise like slavery. Another factor that contributed to the growing resentment of slavery in the North was a paradoxical one, because the South benefited so much economically for slavery where little to no labour skills were needed it began to affect the American economy as a whole as it limited the growth of the US economy. Work ethic was undermined and slavery itself only was only beneficial to the US in the short term and in hindsight it is easy to see that it actually stunted the US

With its warm climate and fertile soil, the South became an agrarian society, where tobacco, rice, sugar, cotton, wheat, and hemp defined the economy (“Colonial Economy”). Because of a labor shortage, landowners bought African slaves to work their massive plantations. Even small-scale farmers often used slave labor as a means to help increase their production rate ("John C. Calhoun's Defense of Slavery"). After the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, cotton could finally be mass produced (“Slavery”). However, in order to pick all the cotton, slave labor would be needed, thus the reason for hundreds of thousands of imported slaves during the 1700s. In the United States, a stronger case can be made that slavery played a critical role in economic development. Cotton, grown primarily with slave labor, provided over half of all US export earnings. By 1840, the South grew sixty percent of the world's cotton and provided about seventy percent of the cotton consumed by the British textile industry. (“Colonial Economy”). In addition, due to the South specializing in cotton production, the North developed a variety of businesses that provided services for the slave South, including textile factories, a meat processing industry, insurance companies, shippers, and cotton brokers (“Colonial Economy”). By the time the Civil War erupted, 4.9

In order for them to generate a more lucrative business, the south used slaves as a labor source to produce crops, which had the largest impact on the southern lifestyle. This in turn boosted the south's economy, which allowed the the southern life to thrive and create a distinction between themselves and the other economies of North America. Whilst slaves dominated the southern economy, slaveholders only accounted for about two to three percent of the southern population. This small, yet powerful percentage of individuals were the people successful in agricultural business and the driving force behind the usage and continuation of slavery in the South. Without slaves there would be no cotton, tobacco, or sugar production and without these integral items, the Southern economy would absolutely collapse. The South depended on slaves to fuel their economy which in turn allowed for slavery to dominate the economy and be the sole resource of the South.

In the United States, slavery had an overwhelming impact on their political, social, and economical. Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, the first African slaves were brought into the United States. Reasons were because the tobacco, sugar, rice, and coffee fields were expanding which led to increasing the demand for labor. The Atlantic slave trade was an inhuman systematic importation of slaves between the African traders, American planters, and the European merchants bargaining over human lives which led to the Middle Passage. 1675-1775, the slaves were the backbone of monoculture labor and so it was put into law to keep the Africans as slaves. “So prevalent was this Italian-operated slave trade that the word “slave” was derived from the word “Slav,” name for people from Slavic countries” (Williams 3). In both seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation.

What is slavery? Slavery is forced labor and this forced labor is what built America and made them become more developed. “Africans peoples were captured and transported to the Americas to work. Most European colonial economies in the Americas from the 16th century through the 19th were dependant on enslaved African labor for their survival.” Many claim that enslavement was very necessary in order for America to thrive and not die off for it is now one of the best countries in the world. However, slavery was not necessary in the Americas it was just a mechanism that just stripped Africans of their human rights, giving the slave masters the “right” to abuse them. Slavery was not necessary in the Americas because without slavery America would

During the nineteenth century in America the issue of slavery became a huge ordeal between many groups of people. In the South this issue was more prominent than in the North due to many factors, which included the economy, way of life, and beliefs of southern whites. The need for slaves increased after the invention of the cotton gin so slaves were high in demand for processing cotton. In the South, the economical system revolved around the use of slaves due to the strong agricultural economy that had been formed. Justifications such as the use of the Gospel, and examining how slavery helped to boost the economy gave the whites all the reason more to keep slavery around. Slavery was a way of life for many generations and it had no signs of changing no matter how bad the North pushed the issue that slavery was wrong.

Times like this are very sad . South became the cotton producing of the country . Cotton was easier to grown then tobacco. Tobacco didn’t

The film “Slavery and The Making Of America” covered the beginning of American slavery in the British colonies until the end of slavery in the southern states and post-civil war reconstruction. This film shows viewers remarkable stories of individual slaves, providing new perspectives on how unjust the slaves experiences were, and besides all the trouble they were facing still having to survive and shape their own lives. The British colonies in North America had an abundance of land and a scarcity of labor ended up producing money crops with the forced labor of African slaves, literally being treated as if they were machines for production.

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.

This paper will question the relationship between Slavery and Capitalism, and the extent to how dependent Capitalism was on slavery. Chattel slavery first arrived to America in 1619 and from there the business just kept on growing. It leads to the invention of the cotton gin and helped push forward the young country into the developed powerful nation it is now. This can be gained from the readings from Bailyn, Beverly, the Declaration of Independence, and other works that show not only how profitable slavery was, but also how important it was to the development of America as a country.

Branwen Gruffydd Jones questions why slavery and racism is not addressed as essential in capitalism and the development of industry in Europe. The reason behind IR’s ignorance towards slavery and the history of slavery is due to as highlighted by Krishna that IR is race blind and often forgetful about race hence why when thinking about capitalism IR forgets about slavery. Despite the world economy evidently being influenced by racialized labour through importation and trafficking, when analysing history owing to the history being partially portrayed due to it only being centred on Europe, slavery is often overlooked. The transatlantic slave trade played a significant role in the growth of Britain’s trade and industrialisation and in his book ‘Capitalism and Slavery’, Eric Williams argued how slavery and the profits made from the slave trade set the scene for Britain’s industrial revolution. Williams highlights how the slave trade in the 17th and 18th century resulted in slaves working in the cotton and sugar industry, in turn transforming Britain’s economy as cotton and sugar were two of Britain’s main exports, the slave trade was arguably Europe’s most profitable industry as large amounts of profit was made from both cotton and sugar. The profits made from the cotton and sugar industry helped to finance the industrial revolution in Britain and the US as the immense profit made from sugar and cotton plantations allowed for large wealth surpluses to be accumulated as well as