Slavery was upheld in the early stages of the United States because Southern slaveholders referred to their slaves as property. Slaves realized that all men aren't created equal as stated in the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. Freedom was only a dream. Slavery increased because of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 that doubled the size of the United States. In 1810, the Census reported that there were 1,163,854 slaves in the South, mainly due to the growing production of cotton and sugar.

England first realized the potential of black slaves when in 1775, Lord Dunmore granted freedom to all "indented servants, Negroes, or others..."(83). Southern whites did not like this

In many areas of the South such as western Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky, there was no slavery at all. Small yeoman farmers owned their own land, grew most of their food, and lived self-sufficient with no outside help. However, in the Deep South of Alabama and Mississippi, almost half of the white families were slave owners. There were two societies to the South, slave holding and self-sufficient. Although, class conflict was largely absent by the 1840's because of the regions where each society was most conspicuous were geologically separate. Thousands of small farmers with little tobacco or cotton could identify with local planters because they were both growing the same crop. An economic connection existed between the small farmers who marketed their surplus corn and hogs to planters and depended on them to gin and even market their bales of cotton. Although it was racial fear, not farmer brotherhood, that led to the southern determination to maintain slavery in the face of northern opposition.

Cotton was also very well suited to the small farmer. Small farmers who didn't have hundreds of slaves and thousands of acres could grow cotton profitably. However, Boles writes, "the most significant economic advantage of slavery was that it allowed farm size to increase significantly" (100). The larger planters had a gin and cotton press to satisfy their own needs also helped out other farmers in need. What developed before the Civil War was a complex white slave owning society that depended on slave labor as a way of life.

The Slave society also evolved over the years

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1079
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)