The antebellum reform movement of abolition created conflict between differing sets of ideas and interests in the Northern and Southern regions of the United States. Northern states favored the destruction of slavery, seeing it as a violation of the “principles of justice...and the golden rule espoused by Jesus Christ” (Foner 436), and Southern states favored maintaining/expanding slavery due to the fact that “profits from cotton coursed through the whole...economy” (Alexis) down South. Slavery was what held the South in an agrarian state, while the North industrialized and the divide between the two deepened. Abolitionists fiercely battled Southern planters over the issue of slavery, for how could something so morally wrong be played off as right? The American public sphere purposely kept the discussion of bondage under wraps, but with tensions rising, it became a lot harder to oppress.
Abolitions saw the depletion of slavery as a necessary step in order to secure the future of their nation, for the Declaration of Independence even condemned it (Foner 441). Viewing it as an unparalleled evil, a new wave of reforms in the
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Most of the South’s influence in the world came from its colossal cotton crop, gathered by slave labor, for “cotton...tied the American economy to slavery” (Alexis). Southerner enjoyed the economic benefits of slavery and found those very difficult to just pass up like the abolitionists requested. With such big plantations, planters needed help to run them, but unlike small farmers in the South, they could not create enough children to contribute in running an estate of that size; Southern planters needed slaves to continue to make
However, in the 18th and 19th centuries there was a great deal of arguing and talk about freeing slaves between the Northern and Southern states, which the North really did not have a problem with freeing the slaves since they were leaning more toward the liberating lifestyle for all American people. The South was in between abolishing slavery. There were stereotyping going around the states about slaves.
Agriculture dominated the south with its ability to produce exceptional wealth for plantation owners. However, they were in need of labor and so they “made all men their slaves in hopes of recompenses.” (Doc. F) Many Englishmen brought over indentured servants from Europe who served as the foundation of the labor force for plantations. Soon enough, ¾ of the population in the south colonies were made of indentured servants.
The South needed slaves as a way of running their plantations. The use of slaves was very important to their
Abolition was the demand to remove the institution of slavery and to make all people free. However, it was a movement that was not present until the American Revolution was nearing its end. 1780, Pennsylvania became the first state to begin taking small steps to abolish slavery. This being several years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we can logically assume that slavery was not a large concern up to that point. A third of the declaration focused on the rights that Britain was taking away from the colonies, but they paid no attention to the rights they themselves were neglecting of African American slaves.
The Civil War was one of the most defining events in American history and the antebellum years of the 1840’s were filled with turmoil and bloodshed due to wars. The expansion of slavery into Western territories caused a great deal of controversy and increased the sectional tensions. Since drafting of the Constitution, the North and the South had grown further apart in terms of economy, ideology, and society. Slavery became even more divisive when it threatened to expand westward because non-slave holding white settlers did not want to compete with slaveholders in the new territories. The south viewed slavery as essential to their traditional ways but the north opposed its spread.
No matter your stance at the time, one thing became clear: socially, politically and economically, slavery was the fabric of American success and gave birth to the Old South as we know it today. At the center of the entire institution of slavery, and central to its defense, was the economic domination it provided a young country in international markets. In the early 19th century, cotton was a popular commodity and overtook sugar as the main crop produced by slave labor. The production of cotton became the nation’s top priority; America supplied ¾ of the cotton supply to the entire world.
In this time period slavery was the biggest aspect in American (South) in its era. Due to the Spanish taking lands from the Native Americans to colonist and to build on the new land. Then enslaving
The South was able to produce 7/8 of the worlds cotton supply. The South became more dependent on the planted field system and it’s full of force part, slavery. Notably, at that moment, the North was flourishing industrially. The North depended on factories and others
They believed that an economy based on cotton and slavery would continue to prosper". This shows that Slaves and cotton were very important to the Southerners. In conclusion, slaves in the south were important people because they managed to do so much stuff with the least number of things. For example, they had their own cultures and they kept that religion going on even through the roughest times in their lives like being separated from their family, or even getting a whipping for no reason. These slaves went through so much and they are strong people who couldn't make history the way it is now and
The pro-slavery argument revolved around the idea of white supremacy. Southern individuals believed that blacks were innately inferior to whites and this made them unsuited for any life other than slavery. Many slaveholders also used biblical justification for the validation of slavery. Passages such as the injunction that servants should obey their masters are an example of this. There were others who argued that slavery was essential to human progress.
With the invention of the “cotton gin” and other inventions like it, it caused the demand for slaves to go up and to man these machines. The crops they grew in the South were tobacco, rice, sugar cane, and indigo. These were mostly the "big money" crops sold. Near some of the bays in the South, they gathered fish, oysters, and crabs. They also grew cotton as it was a promising crop, but it was difficult for them to get out the unnecessary parts.
Slavery was a major part of the american way of life, but there were many causes of the resistance to it. Even though many states in the United States opposed and are resisting the act of slavery, many events had a big impact on the ending of slavery. The second great awakening, industrial revolution, and abolishment movement are underlying forces of growing opposition to slavery in the United States from 1776 to 1852. The opposition and abolishment of slavery changed american history.
The demonstrations of division in America coexisted many: utopian societies, clashes over public space, backlash alongside immigrants, urban rebellions, black demonstration, and Indian oppositions. America was a separated land in need of change with the South in the biggest demand. The South trusted heavily on agriculture, equally opposed to the North, which was vastly populated and an industrialized union. The South produced cotton, which remained its main cash crop and countless Southerners knew that hefty reliance on slave labor would damage the South ultimately, but their forewarnings were not regarded. The South was constructed on a totalitarian system.
In the minds of many Southerners, without slavery, the South and America as a whole, wouldn’t continue to be a growing economic powerhouse, and would lose its culture as a nation where White Christian, males, ruled society. For many, there was no South, no America, without slavery. History has shown time and time again that power corrupts. To hold onto their power, slave owners made sure their slaves were kept uneducated.
Approximately three Southern states change their approach on forced labor without compensation, African American slaves would work for an amount of cash that was, generally, given to the masters of the slaves; However, some of these African American were freed and, therefore, kept all the earnings. In the mid 1800’s southern states, slavery was progressively headed towards salary base employment which would boost the states economically. Furthermore, Northern states were already using such economic structure to boost labor in the industrial region, which led to divide the country into sectors of specialized commodities. Southern state were no longer the only major contributor of economic growth, the Northern states were in large in foreign demands for cotton in the years of 1815-1843 as industries boomed in