Why did slavery take root in the U.S. South? There are many things that lead to slavery in the south and the American colonies as a whole, but at the root of it all I believe it comes down to money and power. In the following essay I hope to illustrate how money and power were the motivation for slavery in America and the cause for its extended stay in the south.
Let 's start off with why slavery was in America to begin with. According to European colonial officials, the abundant land in the Americas was useless without sufficient labor (Dodson). Now with that being the case, there were not enough to colonists to supply that labor nor were there enough to indigenous people. This was due largely to the attrition caused by disease to include; …show more content…
This is a simple matter of location and climate. The land in the south was perfect for growing tobacco, rice and cotton on a large scale. This large scale production required a large labor force, African slave labor filled that labor need because of the availability of large numbers and the profits to be made using them. The north on the other hand had no use for large scale slave labor until later when industry started popping up, but by that time slavery in the north was almost at its end. If northern factories had become prevalent 30-40 years earlier I wonder if we would be a completely different …show more content…
With the decrease in indentured servitude, which I believe had more to do with potential profits and long term investment then race, the majority of slaves were African American. This being the case in most situations it was safe to assume if you ran across an African American they most likely would be a slave. This set the precedent that white=free and black=slave, more so in the south then the north. I think that the belief that African Americans were somehow a lesser race stems from the guilt of the masters. I believe that it was a simple rationalization to make it easier for them to live with themselves, but as always money wins out, humans are capable of horrendous acts if it is profitable and they can rationalize their way out of the guilt. Although through the years it may have been ingrained in each generation to a point where they whole heartedly believed it. In the north it was harder to maintain these beliefs when in close proximity to African Americans who were more educated then their southern brothers therefore more relatable to whites. In addition to being raised to an extent by black house slaves. The idea of paternalism I believe to be along the same lines, once the slave trade was abolished they had no choice but to maintain their investments now that replacements were harder to come by. I doubt slave owners had any feelings toward his slaves
Let 's start off with why slavery was in America to begin with. According to European colonial officials, the abundant land in the Americas was useless without sufficient labor (Dodson). Now with that being the case, there were not enough to colonists to supply that labor nor were there enough to indigenous people. This was due largely to the attrition caused by disease to include; …show more content…
This is a simple matter of location and climate. The land in the south was perfect for growing tobacco, rice and cotton on a large scale. This large scale production required a large labor force, African slave labor filled that labor need because of the availability of large numbers and the profits to be made using them. The north on the other hand had no use for large scale slave labor until later when industry started popping up, but by that time slavery in the north was almost at its end. If northern factories had become prevalent 30-40 years earlier I wonder if we would be a completely different …show more content…
With the decrease in indentured servitude, which I believe had more to do with potential profits and long term investment then race, the majority of slaves were African American. This being the case in most situations it was safe to assume if you ran across an African American they most likely would be a slave. This set the precedent that white=free and black=slave, more so in the south then the north. I think that the belief that African Americans were somehow a lesser race stems from the guilt of the masters. I believe that it was a simple rationalization to make it easier for them to live with themselves, but as always money wins out, humans are capable of horrendous acts if it is profitable and they can rationalize their way out of the guilt. Although through the years it may have been ingrained in each generation to a point where they whole heartedly believed it. In the north it was harder to maintain these beliefs when in close proximity to African Americans who were more educated then their southern brothers therefore more relatable to whites. In addition to being raised to an extent by black house slaves. The idea of paternalism I believe to be along the same lines, once the slave trade was abolished they had no choice but to maintain their investments now that replacements were harder to come by. I doubt slave owners had any feelings toward his slaves