FEB 6 2014 Slavery and Frontiers Mississippi 1720-1835 Slavery in Mississippi has a very interesting beginning in the state. The indigenous people of the region did practice slavery to some extent. The Native Americans however did not use the same practices of the Europeans. The Europeans maintained slavery for its means of profitability but the native Americans only had slaves as a luxury. The Indians did not really differentiate the Europeans and the slaves that they brought with them to the newly discovered lands.
Despite this, had it not been for slavery, there would have been no initial divide between North and South which created economic disparity and led to Southern paranoia over Northern expansionism which led to war, thus the most important factor. The most important factor for the outbreak of the American Civil War was slavery because it caused the initial divides between the North and South. The first divisions were as the USA was undergoing Western Expansion with the issue over whether the new states, such as California and New Mexico should be brought in as Slave states or Free states. The failure to reach a decision over whether new states would be Slave states or Free states meant there was inevitably a conflict that can be seen through to the tensions in Kansas in 1857. The fact that a minor civil war occurred simply over the issue of slavery clearly depicts that slavery was an essential factor in the outbreak of the Civil War.
Even though the North and South tried to reconcile their differences on the issue of slavery by implementing compromises in the 1820’s and 1850’s, both attempts failed, leading up to the Civil War. On March 14, 1794, Eli Whitney’s was granted a patent for the cotton gin. The cotton gin made the job of separating cotton from its seed much easier. The ease of separating the cotton fiber from the seed meant that more raw cotton would be needed to keep up with increased demand. Therefore, a large amount of slaves were needed in the south to work the fields as fast as the cotton gins could separate
When the cotton gin was invented in 1793, cotton came to be very lucrative. This machine had the ability to decrease the time taken to separate seeds from the cotton. However, with the number of the plantations willing to change from growing other crops to cotton increasing, there was a greater need for a large amount of cheap labor which was achieved through slavery. This resulted in the Southern economy developing a one crop economy, which depended on cotton and consequently on slavery. In contrast to the South, the Northern economy was centered more on manufacturing than farming.
The territorial expansion of the United States played a great role in the Civil war because it indirectly affected slavery. The United States expanding meant that the North and South would have to agree on whether the new territories would be admitted as free or slave territories. Before new states were added, there was balance among the country. Once new territories were added, the
While many disregard this system as cruel and unfair, in reality it helped to shape America as it is today. Without the help of this system, economies would not be as developed as they are now. Unfree labor played a very important role in shaping the economy and society of colonial American through the use of indentured servants and slavery. The system of temporary servitude in the New World was established out of practices used in New England. In short, indentured servants were mainly poor British people without jobs.
The American Civil War was fought over a few reasons, but slavery is thought to be the major reason for the war and even today, slavery is "front and center" as the reason for the war. Ultimately, the American Civil War was the result of economic, social, and political differences between the Northern States and the Southern States. The Southern economy was driven by the growth of cotton, which needed a huge amount of work force, in this case slaves. Some of the Northern states had abolished slavery, others agreed on the gradual emancipation after the American Revolutionary War, and their economy was industrial based. There was a dispute between free-states and slave states over the new territory, California, though the issue was temporally fixed with the Compromise of 1850.
The government tried to give African-Americans their rights but the new system of slavery was increasing in the south. Plantation owners and slaves were signing labor contracts, sheriffs were gaining power from charging Afican-Americans with a made up charge, sheriffs were hired by plantation owners to find new laborers by charging them with a made up crime, etc. Since African-Americans didn’t have the money to pay the charges they would be sent to jail and then leased by the plantation owners. This meant landowners could get cheaper labor than when they had to buy the slave. The government started to investigate the south’s new system of slavery.
Needless to say, southern slave owners were not willing to abolish slavery because of the money they stood to lose. The North, on the other hand, was experiencing an industrial revolution. This area of the United States had five times more factories than the South. However, unlike the South, work in these northern factories was carried out by immigrants. Since the North controlled the majority
The slave states believed the abolitionist states were trying to limit slavery in the U.S.. Most slave states were in the south because most economies in southern states depended on slaves. This was because most southerners were farmers of tobacco or cotton. If the power of the slave states was limited then the amount of slaves being brought to America by the slave trade would decrease. This would furthermore decrease the amount of money that the southerners gained each year.