Everybody has something they feel that makes their lives easier, something a person becomes so accustomed to they could not live without it. This is what African slaves were to the Southern colonists. Slavery was a huge factor in the Southerner’s lives. Originally the colonists used indentured servants to work in their homes and on their plantations. This situation was not ideal because the Southern farmers wanted more control over their workers (orange). Virginian farmers heard about the success of slavery in the Caribbean and thought it would be a good solution to their problems (blue). The southern colonists had a very different way of earning a living than in the north. They needed people to work through “the harsh realities of a land-rich, but labor-scarce economy…” (Purple). The plantation owners had all the land and resources, but no one to work on their grounds long term. Throughout the years 1607-1775, slavery rose as an important contributor to the South’s economy due to social, geographic and economic aspects. Slavery affected the South’s social structure because the southern elite enjoyed being at the top of the ranks. Although slavery was originally started for economic reasons, social components regarding slavery soon became important to the southern colonists (red). Land and slave owners were at the top of these ranks, and then came poor farmers, and then slaves at the bottom. Virginians had a specific attitude towards others based on the color of one’s skin and the amount of slaves a person had (pink). Generally, the amount of slaves owned by a proprietor established his position and power, measured his affluence, and marked his status. The plantation owners with the most land and slaves held the most power in th... ... middle of paper ... ...(pink). Plantation owners needed slaves to maintain their lands, without which they would receive no profits. Fears of slave revolts and a growing stigma attached to African Americans only fueled southerners on. The southern colonists wanted an economical solution that benefited their specific geographical needs; Slavery also became a way to raise a southern colonist’s social standing, as well as his income. Slavery fit all of the Southerner’s needs and was brought forth at a time when those needs were at their peak. Slavery rose exponentially up to and way after Thomas Jefferson wrote the words, “All men are created equal”. It lasted as long as it did because of how well it worked in the South. Slavery became so popular for the reason that southerners looked past the cruelty and saw that they could greatly benefit in everyway from buying slaves to work their lands.
“The contrast in the relative prominence of slavery between the Upper South and the Lower South reflects the adverse health conditions and arduous labor requirements of lowland rice cultivation, whereas tobacco farming continued to be attractive to free family farmers as well as to slave owners”(Engerman, Sutch, & Wright, 2004). The lower South depended on their slaves more than the Upper because they were in the process of cropping tobacco. The Upper South had to keep up with the lower south, because they had to focus on their slave trade that would build and expand their plantations. During this era, the diverse between these two regions were more concerned with the values of slaves. The values of slave price can increase because of high demands between the upper and the lower South. As the upper South was coming up short, the slave profession took off. The slave profession helped the Upper South, yet there were numerous deformities. The slave percentage was at the end of its usefulness of significance “in the Upper South” significance it had a weaker understanding of community reliability than in the cotton areas. This made the upper south separate on what the future may hold. It was not clear on whether if the future was based on the Deep South’s financial growth between the North and the
In the South, however, the economy was predominantly agricultural. Cotton and tobacco plantations relied heavily on the free labor of slaves for their economic prosperity. They saw the urbanization and industrialization of the North, and the economic connection between the North a...
The use of labor came in two forms; indenture servitude and Slavery used on plantations in the south particularly in Virginia. The southern colonies such as Virginia were based on a plantation economy due to factors such as fertile soil and arable land that can be used to grow important crops, the plantations in the south demanded rigorous amounts of labor and required large amounts of time, the plantation owners had to employ laborers in order to grow crops and sell them to make a profit. Labor had become needed on the plantation system and in order to extract cheap labor slaves were brought to the south in order to work on the plantations. The shift from indentured servitude to slavery was an important time as well as the factors that contributed to that shift, this shift affected the future generations of African American descent. The history of colonial settlements involved altercations and many compromises, such as Bacons Rebellion, and slavery one of the most debated topics in the history of the United States of America. The different problems that occurred in the past has molded into what is the United States of America, the reflection in the past provides the vast amount of effort made by the settlers to make a place that was worth living on and worth exploring.
Slavery prospered more in the South than in the North. Many have wondered why this occurred. This happened for several reasons. To begin with, the South needed additional workers to operate their farms and plantations. Another reason they had slaves was to increase the size of their military force. Last but not least, they didn’t feel that African Americans were entitled to human rights. Based on these items, the Northerners did not share the same view on slavery as the Southerners did. Most of the population in the North did not condone slavery. This was partially because they did not have the same agricultural needs. In addition to this, they felt that all races deserved to be treated equally.
The institution of slavery, from the year 1830 to 1860, created a divide between the northern and southern regions of the United States. Southerners, who relied on slaves to maintain their plantations, supported the institution, as it was a major part of their economy. Meanwhile, northerners, many of whom depended on slave produced cotton for textile mills and goods for the shipping industry, were divided on the slave issue, as some saw it as a blessing while the abolitionists saw it as a horrific institution. Overall, attitudes toward the institution of slavery, due to a variety of causes, differed in the varying regions in the United States from 1830 to 1860.
The southern states were all tied together, but they each had there own economic priorities and there own view and importance on slavery. First, the Lower South (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas) there focus ands main crop production was cotton; therefore concluding that slavery in the Lower South was highly important to their productivity. Next, the Middle South (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas) had many different agricultural needs and many jobs spread throughout the area reducing the need for slavery in this region. Lastly, The Upper or Border South (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri) slavery was beginning to decrease. The Lower South definitely favored slavery more than other regions, but they needed the slaves for all the cotton that there producing; the entire South had one thing in common and that was that they were against doing away with slavery. Therefore, the Old South was trying to increase slavery while the Union was trying to do away with, which led to the Confederate States of America in
Also, in the South, it was hard, rough work in the hot sun and very few whites were willing to do the work, therefore, most plantation owners purchased slaves to work the land. The plantation owner gave the slaves shelter and a small food allowance as a salary. Thereby, the plantation owner "saved" his money to invest in more land, which of course required more slaves to continue to yield a larger profit. An economic cycle was created between plantation owner and slave, one that would take generations to end. Slaves were now a necessity on the larger plantations to work the fields.
Poor Southerners also supported the "peculiar institution", because it ensured that even the poorest white man was higher than a black man was. This was why Southerners said it preserved social order. Slavery, essentially, gave poor whites someone to look down upon and mock. To an agrarian society the preservation of a rigid class system is of primary concern, unfortunately, this was the only way the South could preserve it was through slavery.
There were many economic reasons for the increase of slavery in the plantations in the South. The populations of slavery in the plantations were because the colonists depended on there Indentured Servants. The Indentured Servants were people who agreed to a contract which was to work in the southern colony. This contract lasted up for 4-7 years of hard work labor. This was as long as the servants paid for their journey. After the 4-7 years of labor there were free. The servants did slave labor but they were not slaves. The indentured servants and slaves both had some things in common. One they both worked on cash crops. Also they both worked hard and they were not paid for doing their labor.
Before the American Revolution, slavery existed in every one of the colonies. But by the last quarter of the 18th century, slavery was eventually abandoned in the North mainly because it was not as profitable as it was to the South (where it was becoming even more prevalent). Slavery was an extremely important element in America's economy because of the expanding tobacco and cotton plantations in the Southern states that were in need of more and more cheap labor. At one point America was a land of 113, 000 slaveholders controlling twenty million slaves.
Life in the South before the Civil War was completely dependent on slaves. White men could only move into a higher class by purchasing more slaves. The more slaves a man owned meant that he was responsible for more people. White men identified themselves through how much authority they had over their wives, children, and slaves. With more slaves, there were more people dependent on the white man, so he had more authority over more people. White men were defined by how many people relied on him and how much authority he had. White slave-owners were also defined by how they treated their slaves. Some slave-owners acted paternalistic towards their slaves, and helped to unite slaves’ families. Slave-owners did this so that their slaves would like them and fulfill their fantasy of a happy slave who loved his owner. Some masters felt like the only way they could be a good owner was through treating their slaves well. However, some slave-owners took pride in breaking their slaves in order to make their slaves completely dependent upon their master. Slave-owners wanted to be completely powerful over their slaves, and often this meant destroying their slaves’ values. If a master had total control over slaves, that meant he was a good master. Slave-owners built their identity with how much authority they had over their
Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland were settled in the early 17th century. It was a difficult live for the first colonist; they had limited labor and were constantly raided by Native Americans. Colonist tried to use the Native Americans as a source of slavery. Most of the colonist’s farms were by forest areas so Native Americans would just leave in to the woods. Colonists were afraid of pressuring them from the fear of getting ambushed by gangs of Native Americans. Another reason Native Americans men made bad slaves was because the women in the tribes did the agricultural work in the Native American villages.
The economies of the North and South were vastly different leading up to the Civil War. Money was equivalent to power in both regions. For the North, the economy was based on industry as they were more modern and self-aware. They realized that industrialization was progress and it could help rid the country of slave labor as it was wrong. The North’s population had a class system but citizens could move within the system, provided they made the money that would allow them to move up in class. The class system was not as rigid as it was in the South. By comparison, the South wanted to hold on to its economic policy. In doing so, the practice of slavery kept the social order firmly in place. The economic factors, social issues and a growing animosity between the two regions helped to induce the Civil War.
village, and then burn the huts to the ground. Most of the people who were taken
Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict. Slavery has existed in the New World since the seventeenth century prior to it being exclusive to race. During those times there were few social and political concerns about slavery. Initially, slaves were considered indentured servants who will eventually be set free after paying their debt(s) to the owner. In some cases, the owners were African with white servants. However, over time the slavery became exclusive to Africans and was no limited to a specific timeframe, but life. In addition, the treatment of slaves worsens from the Atlantic Slave trade to th...