Slavery Research Paper

Submitted By BrandiNicole2000
Words: 801
Pages: 4

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to aid in the production of such lucrative and societal crops as tobacco. Slavery was practiced throughout the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries and African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 solidified the central importance of slavery to the South's economy. By the mid-19th century America's westward expansion along with a growing abolition movement in the North would provoke a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody American Civil War (1861-65). Though the Union victory freed the nation's 4 million slaves the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history from the years of Reconstruction (1865-77) to the civil rights movement that emerged in the 1960s a century after emancipation.

Slaves in the early 1800s The slave market in Atlanta, Georgia, 1864
The North of the U.S was mainly against slavery but most people felt apathetic towards slavery. While the south would do anything to defend slavery and tolerate it. During the first part of the 1800's theNorth and the South grew in different ways. In the North cities were centers of wealth and manufacturing. There were many skilled workers. Manufactured products in the south was not common. There were not many skilled workers. Most of the people were farmers. Money came from plantation crops, like cotton, rice, sugar cane and tobacco. Slaves did most of the work on the plantations and inside the house
What led to the outbreak of the bloodiest conflict in the history of North America?A common explanation is that the Civil War was fought over the moral issue of slavery.In fact it was the economics of slavery and political control of that system that was central to the conflict.A key issue was states' rights.The Southern states wanted to assert their authority over the federal government so they could abolish federal laws they didn't support, especially laws interfering with the South's right to keep slaves and take them wherever they wished.

These are the weapons the soldiers This is a famous drawing of the civil war. might have used. Another factor was territorial expansion.The South wished to take slavery into the western territories, while the North was committed to keeping them open to white labor alone.Meanwhile, the newly formed Republican party, whose members were strongly opposed to the westward expansion of slavery into new states, was gaining prominence. The election of a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, as President in 1860 sealed the deal. His victory, without a single Southern electoral vote, was a clear signal to the Southern states that they had lost all influence. Feeling excluded from the political system, they turned to the only alternative they believed was left to them secession, a political decision that led directly to war.

This is what the emancipation This is a famous drawing of Abraham proclamation would have