Slavery and Plantation Life Essay

Submitted By kaylajean68
Words: 421
Pages: 2

The Southern labor system shifted from white indentured servitude to African slavery during the colonial period, because servants wouldn’t work for others when they could farm their own land. As the production of cotton climbed higher, so did the demand for slaves. The conviction of southerners said that slavery was an economic necessity. Britain outlawed the international slave trade in 1807 and the U.S. took the same step in 1808. In the preceding quarter century, all the northern states had abolished slavery or passed laws for gradual emancipation. Between 1776 and 1786 all the states except South Carolina and Georgia either banned or heavily taxed the international slave trade. These 2 states prohibited congress from passing a federal law to outlaw the slave trade for 20 years.

The cotton boom caused a huge increase in the domestic slave trade. Plantation owners in the Upper South (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and Tennessee) sold their slaves to meet the demand for labor because of the rise in cotton usage. Cotton was the number one southern crop. The already large slave system became larger as slaves were smuggled into the country. The motto of Southerners became “cotton is king”

Eighty percent of the South’s cotton went to England by way of northern shippers. These shippers were able to buy cotton wholesale and sell it at a premium. 75% of the cotton used in England’s production came from the U.S. England was so dependant on the south’s cotton and the north’s transportation of it, both region’s heavily benefited from this export.

Mid 19th century,