(pg. 374) The increased demand for raw materials like sugar and tobacco also changed the market logic for southern agriculture. The Southern market would need an increased labor force to keep up with demand. Slaves for centuries played a key role in southern labor force. The expanded market increased the demand for production and labor. The slave trade exploded. In the 1820’s 155,000 slaves were sold into the labor market. (pg. 374) Slaves are advertised as products for sale alongside manufactured goods, factory equipment and livestock. (pg. 374) The domestic slave trade comprised as much as an estimated 15 percent of the Southern economy. (pg. 374). The growth of slavery during this time period became important because of the labor revolution. Free white men and woman could work similar status jobs in the north and be free, so why should African Americans still remain slaves? The country was beginning to notice that free workers identified with a working class that demanded better treatment but slaves are still characterized by race and considered property. The rise of democratic participation in politics by white men in America helped to divide political responses to the acceleration of the American market economy, specifically on the issue of slavery. (pg. …show more content…
(pg. 498) America however continued the practice of slavery and even defended it. The defenders of slavery offered increasingly elaborate intellectual and religious justification. (pg. 498) With the continued practice of slavery as a labor force America’s politics were changing. Southern advocates of antislavery attacked the slave owners’ assumption of natural superiority over black slaves. The most famous advocate, Hinton Helper from North Carolina. (pg. 499) He wanted the slaves freed, but also wanted them banned from the country. So while he supported antislavery he did not support equal rights. This was the beginning of the political divide caused by slavery. Vice President John C. Calhoun was the most prominent defender of slavery. He argued that “all men are not created equal. According to the Bible, only two-a man and a woman-ever were-and of those one was pronounced subordinate to the other. All others have come into the world by being born, and in no sense… or equal.” (pg.499) This clearly is a divide in thinking and values. Northern white labors had even begun to strike over slave labor. (pg. 499) The thought of having slave labor meant that free labors would never be fairly treated in a society that allowed