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The Slavery System In The United States

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The institution of slavery, which was mostly based in the South, was very complicated and diverse. In the lower South, there were fewer slaves and sometimes white people would work on the plantations with them to get work done. Even on these plantations, the slaves were divided. Some worked in the house and some worked out on the fields. Slaves who worked on large plantations worked in “gangs” and usually worked from sunup to sundown, six days a week. These slaves usually brought their family or children with them. There was also the “low country” and a “task system”. In the low country, less supervision existed than that of the task system which gave slave owners more control and these slaves usually had to work. Even though these harsh conditions …show more content…

This type of cotton was hardier and coarser and could grow successfully in various soils. It was, however, much harder to process than long-staple cotton because it was harder to remove the seeds. Eli Whitney solved this problem in 1793 with his invention of the cotton gin. This device separated the seeds from the fibers of short-staple cotton very quickly and enabled a slave to clean fifty times more cotton than by hand. On the grander scheme of things, the cotton gin helped the southern economy rise. This also caused a rise of cotton industries which required more slaves. Thus, more slaves were sent to the South and slavery continued and become even more of a necessity.
Slavery was a very controversial topic in the 1800s for various reasons. For slave owners, having slaves was very profitable because they were able to work them as hard as they wanted to and could hopefully gain a profit in the long run. Slave owners could replace their slaves at any time and it was cheap as well. In this time period, slavery was an a billion dollar industry. The North, however, saw slavery as a terrible practice and were hoping to slowly stop the slave …show more content…

They often influenced politics and offices in the government. They were usually considered the ruling class and had to keep a close eye on the market to keep their profit. Most owned a cotton or tobacco plantation and possessed many slaves. A small slaveholder usually had less than 10 slaves and usually kept them for domestic work. These men usually worked out on the field with their slaves but had slaves to lessen the amount of labor work overall. A yeoman farmer cultivated the field all by himself and did not own any slaves. They usually lived a decent life and were very self-sufficient. Mountaineers were usually people who moved to the west and were very

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