The Business of the Domestic Slave Trade
The domestic slave trade was a very significant aspect to the history and business of Virginia and the United States in the late eighteen century, and into the nineteenth century. Over this period of time, roughly one million slaves from the upper south migrated to the deep south of the United States. The ways in which slavery developed into a business in the nineteenth-century Virginia and United States was from westward expansion post Revolutionary War, the skyrocketing demand for cotton, and the treatment of slaves in the deep south compared to what they had been accustom to. All of these factors contributed to the development of the slavery as a business. As the United States finally gained …show more content…
Farmers were in pursuit of new fertile, growing lands that Virginia no longer offered. Tobacco was no longer the prosperous cash crop it once was. The Chesapeake region, which flourished prior to the nineteenth century, was now facing hardship; but the deep souths expansion and productivity of cotton increased the need for labor. The Chesapeake became the main resource of labor for the domestic slave trade. This was only practical because the majority of slaves resided there, “In 1790 over half of all blacks in the nation lived in Maryland and Virginia-45 percent of all southern slaves resided in Virginia alone.” The toll that tobacco had put on the land of Virginia had forced farmed to shift from tobacco to grain crops. This seasonal work required to produce wheat was less tedious than the labor needed for tobacco, and as a result Virginia had a surplus of slaves at their disposal. As this once dominant state lacked their typical income in wealth and power that they had been accustom to, Virginian’s were heavy advocates of promoting their property. They pushed hard for the encouragement of westward expansion, as well as expanding slavery into foreign territories, “Virginians used this connection when arguing that expansion was beneficial for whites, but they also extended that reasoning to include blacks.” …show more content…
With the innovation of both the cotton gin and the system of “pushing system” slaves were stretched to their limits in terms of the kind of labor they were enduring on a daily basis. This practice of the pushing system “increased the number of acres each captive was suppose to cultivate.” This system allowed for maximum daily labor for slaves to work from sunrise to sunset with no downtime, “we were not allowed to rest at either breakfast or dinner, longer than while we were eating; and we worked in the evening as long as we could distinguish the weed from the cotton plants.” This was entirely different from the trends they experienced as laborers in the Chesapeake. Where once they had accomplished their daily tasks, they had downtime that could be used to tend to their own gardens, hobbies or families. But it also put an emphasis on production and instilled an aspect of fear into slaves who did not meet the daily quota. Slaves working in the cotton fields quickly learned what happened if they slacked to meet the expectations of their daily production, “a man had fallen behind the fore row fight back against a black driver who had tried to ‘whip him up’ to pace. The white overseer, on horseback, pulled out a pistol and shot the prone man dead.” Slaves become prone to this type of violence and adapted to the guidelines of the pushing
The domestic slave trade was a very significant aspect to the history and business of Virginia and the United States in the late eighteen century, and into the nineteenth century. Over this period of time, roughly one million slaves from the upper south migrated to the deep south of the United States. The ways in which slavery developed into a business in the nineteenth-century Virginia and United States was from westward expansion post Revolutionary War, the skyrocketing demand for cotton, and the treatment of slaves in the deep south compared to what they had been accustom to. All of these factors contributed to the development of the slavery as a business. As the United States finally gained …show more content…
Farmers were in pursuit of new fertile, growing lands that Virginia no longer offered. Tobacco was no longer the prosperous cash crop it once was. The Chesapeake region, which flourished prior to the nineteenth century, was now facing hardship; but the deep souths expansion and productivity of cotton increased the need for labor. The Chesapeake became the main resource of labor for the domestic slave trade. This was only practical because the majority of slaves resided there, “In 1790 over half of all blacks in the nation lived in Maryland and Virginia-45 percent of all southern slaves resided in Virginia alone.” The toll that tobacco had put on the land of Virginia had forced farmed to shift from tobacco to grain crops. This seasonal work required to produce wheat was less tedious than the labor needed for tobacco, and as a result Virginia had a surplus of slaves at their disposal. As this once dominant state lacked their typical income in wealth and power that they had been accustom to, Virginian’s were heavy advocates of promoting their property. They pushed hard for the encouragement of westward expansion, as well as expanding slavery into foreign territories, “Virginians used this connection when arguing that expansion was beneficial for whites, but they also extended that reasoning to include blacks.” …show more content…
With the innovation of both the cotton gin and the system of “pushing system” slaves were stretched to their limits in terms of the kind of labor they were enduring on a daily basis. This practice of the pushing system “increased the number of acres each captive was suppose to cultivate.” This system allowed for maximum daily labor for slaves to work from sunrise to sunset with no downtime, “we were not allowed to rest at either breakfast or dinner, longer than while we were eating; and we worked in the evening as long as we could distinguish the weed from the cotton plants.” This was entirely different from the trends they experienced as laborers in the Chesapeake. Where once they had accomplished their daily tasks, they had downtime that could be used to tend to their own gardens, hobbies or families. But it also put an emphasis on production and instilled an aspect of fear into slaves who did not meet the daily quota. Slaves working in the cotton fields quickly learned what happened if they slacked to meet the expectations of their daily production, “a man had fallen behind the fore row fight back against a black driver who had tried to ‘whip him up’ to pace. The white overseer, on horseback, pulled out a pistol and shot the prone man dead.” Slaves become prone to this type of violence and adapted to the guidelines of the pushing