Slavery In The Economy Of Slavery

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Decade: Up to 1775* (Southern) Prompt: Economic Plantation system and Indentured Servitude The economics of the southern colonies was founded upon large, scattered plantations devoted to the export of commercial agricultural products. The cultivation of staple crops such as rice, indigo, and tobacco was essential to the southern colonies’ economic prosperity. However, the plantation’s wide distribution caused by the continual need to combat soil erosion slowed the growth of cities in the region. To operate the large plantations, southern settlers acquired a large labor force of indentured servants as colonial populations increased slowly through natural reproduction, Native Americans died quickly upon contact with Europeans, and the importation of African slaves was too expensive. Popularized by the head-right system, indentured servants migrated to the southern colonies, expecting land at the end of their servitude. Yet as the amount of land available increased, indentured servants were not given access to it, as previously promised. In frustration over their lack of land and their low wages, 1000 Virginian indentured servants went on a rampage of pilfering and plundering in what would be known as Bacon’s Rebellion. After Bacon’s rebellion, the tension between landlords and former servants led to the search for a new manageable workforce -African slaves. As the African Royal colony had lost its monopoly on the slave trade, prices for African slaves were no longer expensive but rather affordable. The supply of slaves was also able to meet the needs of Southern plantation owners as Africans were sent through the Middle Passage in the triangular trade pattern. By the late 1750s, African slaves were now a staple ... ... middle of paper ... ...rowth of the steel and oil industries meant that rapid growth was inevitable. By the 1900s, the United States would emerge as the leading industrial power in the world, with manufacturing output exceeding that of Great Britain, France, and Germany. The economy grew at an average of about four percent a year, due to various factors. The growing population, in combination with an advanced network of transportation meant an abundant labor supply for industries. Natural resources also played a part in allowing for large-scale industrialization. Businesses flourished because of the government policies protecting property, and various loan, grants, and tariffs. Beliefs during the nineteenth century was that government regulation of business was foreign contributed to the idea of “laissez-faire”, which sprang from economist Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations.

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