Us History Topic - Slavery

How did economic, geographic, and social factors encourage the growth of slavery as an important part of the economy of the southern colonies between 1600 and 1775?

America. When people hear the name of this country, their thoughts are overwhelmingly positive. Since its inception, America has been the archetype of progressivism; the nation has created democracy, stressed universaleducation, and instituted a form of capitalism that provides anyone with the opportunity to succeed. Anyone, that is, except for slaves. From the beginning of the 1600s until it was abolished in 1865, slavery pervaded all aspects of society, especially in the South. Almost all slaves came from Africa, and they were forced to perform difficult labor in horrendous working conditions when the arrived here.Why, then, did such an appalling institution become so popular? The answer lies in a combination of geographic, economic, and social factors. Cash crops provided the principal industry in the South, and using slaves to cultivate them benefited individual slave owners, as well as society as a whole in a purely economic sense, externalities notwithstanding. The farmers sought so strongly to acquireslaves because America’s ideals created the opening for social advancement through additional wealth, which the slaves could bring them. In addition, the racial discrimination that came coupled with American society since its beginnings created an environment in which slavery did not appear to be a ridiculous concept, and with the inception of slave codes in the mid-1700s, it became official.America’s wealth-based social class system and slavery’s financial benefit provided individuals, especially in the South, with an appealing means to increase their social standing; because racial prejudice was already in place, they took that opportunity and enslaved the “inferior” Africans
The early fiscal success of cash crop plantations in the South created a need for high volumes ofworkers; this need was filled through the importation of slaves. As Appendix 1 shows, while the North relied on trades like fishing, lumber, mining and shipbuilding, the primary industries in the South involved tobacco, cotton, rice and sugar cane, all of which were forms of agriculture.[i] In 1612, early on in America’s life, John Rolfe developed a method for producing desirable tobacco. The gooditself did nothing to directly support the lives of those cultivating it, but European demand was astronomical, so farmers earned steady, if not outstanding income from producing it. As historian Jenny Wahl explains, “The great sugar plantations in the eighteenth century…were the largest privately owned enterprises of their time, and their owners among the richest men in the world”.[ii] Accordingly,as Southerners saw their neighbors benefit from tobacco, they too sought to produce it. As increasing numbers of yeomen cultivated the crop on growing parcels of land, additional workers were needed to aid in the harvest. These workers were slaves. As historian David Kennedy analyzes, “Tobacco also promoted the broad-acred plantation system and with it a brisk demand for fresh labor”.[iii] TheSouth’s reliance on agriculture, which required a great deal of manual work, as its primary trade encouraged the importation of labor from outside sources, the end result being slavery.
Furthermore, slave-ownership proliferated at such a rapid level because slaves provided a greater, more long-term benefit to individuals for an overall lower price than indentured servants did. Indenturedservants, though cheaper than slaves up front, worked for a set term of only a few years. In addition, their lives in Europe prepared them poorly for harsh, difficult working conditions, like those on a plantation. Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecœur explained servants’ requirements, describing, “You must give them what they ask…they must be at your table and feed on the best you have”.[iv] These...