...During the antebellum period the South claimed that slavery was not only benign but profitable. These claims have led to a large dived in historians with the majority opposing the South’s claims however the majority are not always right. Well known historians still stand on the side of the Southerners claims, historians including Ulrich Phillips and Fogel and Engerman, arguing that the conditions so often used to discredit slavery are the rare cases of extreme nature and should not be used to make the Southerners claims any less accurate. Countless times power has been abused throughout history, obviously not making it right, but in most cases during the antebellum period slaves lived in similar conditions to most Americans. The conditions of slavery stayed benign and the extreme cases remained rare. The fact that slaves were expensive is proof that masters would not waste them if they were to remain profitable. Plantation masters were entrepreneurial business men and not as Eugene Genovese described them ‘paternalistic’. Focused on making capital it is clear that the South was correct to describe slavery as profitable as it remains on the same level as those in the north invested in industry. The idea that the Southerners claims were inaccurate due to extreme cases seems ridiculous and remains why in the majority of cases the Southerners claims that in the antebellum period slavery was benign and profitable. The Southerners claim that slavery was benign and similar of an...
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...There are hundreds of different views about ‘slavery’. As Paul Finkelman says; few subjects in American history have been as compelling as slavery. Actually the reason, of why this is one of the most compelled and debated issue, is “slavery is not only one of the most ancient but also one of the most long-lived forms of economic and social organizations” . All antebellum Americans, in north and south, were affected directly or indirectly by slavery. When we look at the economic aspect of slavery, I can say that slavery helped the economic growth and development of the United States. It was a harsh but profitable system. Contrary to the arguments that see slavery as inefficient and detriment to America’s economy, I believe that it was a benefactor. As Stampp and Fogel argue, slavery was morally untenable; it was a harsh working system but an efficient and profitable one. This paper will touch upon different arguments about efficiency of slavery and how slavery affected the South economy. This paper will try to clarify the issue that whether slavery was a benefactor or detriment for economy of the United States. The debate has gone on for a long time and it is about whether the slavery was efficient or not and whether it was an economic burden on regions. Historians emphasized mostly on the issue of whether or not slavery was a benefactor or detriment to the United States. There are two opposite poles of this debate. From those historians, Ulrich B. Phillips represented one pole...
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...Eli Whitney Invents the Modern Cotton Gin Slavery was becoming less and less profitable in the South prior to 1793. One reason was because cotton was not a profitable crop for farmers because preparing it for sale was so labor intensive. Eli Whitney's cotton gin turned cotton into a profitable crop and raised the demand of slaves in the South to grow it. This coincided with the North becoming a more industrialized region that didn't need to depend on slaves. 1819 Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise was brokered by Senator Henry Clay to settle the dispute between the North and the South about if the Western territories would be slave or free. Under the terms of the Compromise, slavery would only be allowed in Missouri and south of the 36th parallel. The need for the Missouri Compromise illustrates how the North and the South were beginning to hold very different views on how allowable slavery was to the nation. Bitter feelings about the compromise persisted in both the North and the South. 1828 The Nullification Crisis The Nullification Crisis grew out of a protective tariff of 1828. The tariff was popular with the Northern states, because it provided protection for American made goods. Southern states traded heavily with Great Britain during this time, and felt it would damage their economies. With the support of Vice-President John C. Calhoun, South Carolina passed the Ordinance of Nullification. It stated South Carolina did not have to abide by the tariff...
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...Slavery persisted in the United States for many years, causing a break between the North and South that led to the Civil War. Slavery was a very bad point in time, because it was unfair and terrible to the African Americans. The article says that,"Slavery was a local issue. It was the social and economic base of plantations of 11 southern states. Slavery had increased due to cotton being very profitable." Slaves increased in many states due to all the cotton being produced in the area. The cotton became very profitable in these years, so the need of slaves went up big time. . "Between the 16th and 19th centuries, an estimated total of 12 million Africans were transported to the Americas," states the article in the first paragraph. 12 million innocent Africans lost their freedom because of our country. That is terrible! Not only did slaves lose their freedom, they also get treated like dogs everyday. The article states,"Despite its brutality and cruelty, the slave system caused little protest until the 18th century." In the 18th century, British and American abolitionist wanted to eliminate slavery and they began working to prohibit the import of slaves in the British colonies and American colonies....
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...Do you know how the 15th Amendment was treated, and how people avoided it. The 15th amendment allowed the black to vote and if it wasn’t for the civil war African Americans still might not be able to vote. The 15th Amendment was passed by Representatives on February 25, 1869 by a vote of 39 to 13. The amendment did help a lot of slaves, but even though they were given the right to vote, some people put obstacles in their way. A poll tax, which is a tax put on voting, block slaves from voting (poll tax). Most slaves didn’t have much money so, putting a tax on voting, targeted most African Americans from voting. Even though most slave couldn’t make money, some could make money by having special abilities or such. Those how made money though, would usually want to spend it on their freedom not on voting. Poll taxes were pretty harsh, but there were still some that are way worse....
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...------------------------------------------------- “How accurate were Southern claims in the antebellum period that slavery was benign and profitable?” ------------------------------------------------- By 1850 the issues surrounding slavery had dominated American politics because it was such a divisive issue in the antebellum period. Slavery was extremely important to Southern economics where ‘plantation’ farming had been established and laws passed which meant that all Negro slaves would be slaves for life. In the North, however, they found it easy to rid themselves of slavery and many states began to oppose slavery. Another important and again divisive question is was slavery benign or malignant and also was it profitable? In the antebellum period there were Southern claims that slavery was both benign and profitable. This claim can be argued to be partly accurate, but there are, however, other claims that slavery was malignant and unprofitable. This essay will weigh up and evaluate the evidence under the terms of punishments, revolts, living conditions and profitability before coming to the conclusion as to whether slavery was benign and profitable or malignant and unprofitable. An important aspect to consider when determining whether or not the Southern claims that slavery was benign in the antebellum period were accurate or not is the punishments faced by slaves. It has been argued that slaves were controlled through rewards rather than physical punishments....
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...that included many hooks that would catch the cotton fibers. Then, the hooks would pull the cotton fibers through mesh leaving the seeds behind. Plantation owners looked to cotton farming as a way to gain a lot of money. The cotton gin brought Southerners remarkable wealth, creating conflicts between the North and the South. Southern plantation owners needed to increase their labor force in order to have the ability to make cotton at a fast rate. The cotton gin led to an economic boom in the United States. The invention of the cotton gin had...
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...Slavery was an extremely complex topic for the South and the North, each side had its own perspective toward the issue. The South was exceptionally dependent over the slaves since the majority of their earnings originated from the products, produced by slaves which were later traded. While the North advocated for slaves to become free that it was incorrect for them to be dealt the way that they were, with cruel work, and nearly to no freedom. The South kept its ideology of how resourceful slaves were to them and the economic thrive that they had developed. However, the perspective of the abolition of slavery came to be that it was about the race of the slaves, although the color of their skin was not the origin of servitude. Racial bias did play a role in slavery, yet the economic...
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...The notion that slavery kept the South in pre-modern social and economic “shackles” and therefore deprived its people from catching up with the North has been one of the most stubborn arguments among a number of economic historians. Here, Gomez’s and Edward Baptist’s books provide important corrections. Gomez demonstrates that slave holders sought out particular ethnicities to profit from their agricultural expertise, hence the transatlantic slave trade was not only a way to get access to cheap field hands, but also an early form of brain drain that was essential to feed the increasing population of white settlers and their African slaves. The facts and arguments that Baptist presents demonstrate not only how profitable slavery was, but also...
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...Slavery shaped every facet of the daily life of those living in the old south and even those living in the Northern Stares. Focusing primarily on the Old Southern States it is easy to see that slavery heavily affected the social, economic, religious, and political aspects of old southern life. To begin, the economic effect that slavery had on the southern states were numerous. Slavery allowed for enormous profits to be made by the America. The free labor used to pick cotton and other crops made it very profitable for the plantation owners and the owners of factories in the northern states. Another economic effect was the development of the south. Because slavery made it so profitable to continue an agricultural society, the south found very little use for industry and following the example set by the North. The social effects of slavery were also varied. One of the most important was the structure of society. The South was primarily agricultural because it was so profitable. It was therefore not necessary to develop an industrial base for society. Another social effect was the racism created by slavery. This contempt created between the races was a result of the institution of slavery. The effects of this racism were perpetuated throughout society for a very long time and are seen in our not too distant past. Religion was also affected by slavery. The result of slavery on religion was the creation of new beliefs and traditions. The slaves in the south were exposed...
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...nineteenth centuries. In determining the role that trans-Atlantic slavery played in shaping the United States economy, one need only to look to the expanding role of labor intensive agriculture, particularly cotton after the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, as a major factor in this development. Slavery provided a reliable labor force that strengthened and increased the capitalism in the economy of the emerging United States. It was soon discovered by European colonists that the abundance of land they were settling was useless without sufficient labor to exploit it. The first attempts at filling these needs proved to be unsuccessful or unreliable. The Native...
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...The Antebellum period was the period of time after the revolution until the American Civil war. During this time slavery was at an all time high in the south. Cotton became King and had social and economic repercussions throughout the south and rest of the world. It also had a large impact on the lives of slaves along with the lives of non slaves in the southern states. Cotton was in high demand in the beginning of the 1800’s. This was caused by Britain and the Northern states industrial revolutions need for cotton. Coastal plantations needed a new crop to replace indigo. Long staple sea island cotton was able to replace it. The hand cranked gins were effective at removing the seeds. The back country wanted to get in on the cotton trade. The...
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...North vs. South No matter what skin color, religion, culture or even ethnicity, everyone deserves to get treated the same. That is how most of the people today see things as, but back then everyone was in a different situation. The South and North did not agree in many things, and the main issue was slavery. The northern and southern states varied in a lot of situations like that, which eventually had them leading to the Civil War. There were economic, social, and even political issues that was taking over. Anyone now can say that they rather live in North America than South because of the problems they both had. North and South America in the 1800’s was really different from each other in many ways, however it’s hard to believe from this...
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...Professor Darryle Gatlin December 13, 2016 The Causes of The USA Civil War The civil war was about slavery, as Abraham Lincoln stated “One eight of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the civil war”. Followed by slavery being the major cause of the civil war, there was the constitution, the abolitionist movement, and the republican party that are all related to the slaves. At the end of the war, approximately around seven hundred thousand people lost their lives. A lot of people in the north and the southern part of the...
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...During America’s early development, slavery was the central issue fueling the conflict between state and federal rights, which caused the Civil War. The institution of slavery in the United States resulted in profound effects upon our nation socially, economically, and politically. These changes have had a lasting impact that can still be seen in American society today. The article Origins of the Southern Labor System describes that the American form of slavery was not molded after European concepts of servitude. The article even points out that the word “slave” had no meaning in English law. However, as farmers found large-scale cultivation more profitable, there was a need for the cheapest and most exploitable labor supply. As this system developed, slaveholders out of fear of revolt “were forced to conclude that the slave was wholly unfree, wholly lacking in personality, and wholly a chattel,” (Handlin p.99). At this point black slaves were dehumanized and degraded through the use of masks, whips, separation, and fear. Powerful white plantation owners dominated the south politically and justified their actions through state law. As this continued, the low skilled majority of white southerners could not compete with the free labor system. This labor system led to the fight over westward expansion, southern dependence on northern goods, and the social rift of the north and south. Consequently, our nation was faced with the tragedy of the Civil War, in which Dubois states “poor...
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