Plantation Slavery

A detailed Summary of Plantation Slavery

The institution of slavery was a dark time in our country's past history. The many family members who have been affected by this brutal institution will never forget the scar it marked on our past. Due to the institution of slavery, many people today still feel bitterness because of the harshness these people had to endure and the atrocious way they were treated by their masters. Two conflicting sides on whether or not to keep the institution of slavery was forever prominent since slavery started in the colonies. Due to these two conflicting sides and the many disagreements, it seemed a Civil War was inevitable.

To begin with slavery in America stems well back to when the New World was first discovered and was led by the country to start the African Slave Trade - Portugal. The African Slave Trade was first exploited for sugar plantations in the Caribbean, and eventually reached the southern coasts of America. The Portuguese showed the English how to raise sugar and introduced them to slavery on a large scale and for a time dominated the exportation and marketing of the crop. The African natives were of all ages and sexes. Women usually worked in the homes cooking and cleaning, while men were sent out into the plantations

This horrible war can also be contributed to all of the new technology springing up throughout the country. It all started by an alarming increase in a need for cotton, which triggered the building of a barrier between the Northern and Southern territories of our growing nation. New machinery was changing the textile industry in New England and Britain. These mills needed more and more cotton, creating a new demand in the south. For this trade with Europe, after 1812, raw cotton accounted for one-third all cotton exports of the United States. By 1830, it increased to half. Cotton quickly became a big moneymaking cash crop for the South and North economy alike. But the demand also revived the need for slaves. The plantations had to be worked, and blacks were a cheap, efficient way to get the cotton picked. To make their jobs easier, Eli Whitney took advantage of the new idea, and invented the cotton gin (short for engine). It rapidly cleaned the seeds from the short, sticky fibers of upland cotton, the variety that grew all over the South. In addition to this, the transportation of this crop became extremely important since so much was being produced. Steamboats were starting to be used, and they could be seen transporting thousands of bales of cotton up and down the Mississippi River. Steamboats were important because they were able to go against the strong current and were able to ship to the north. Canals and railroads was also a major contributor to transporting cotton. Canals connected major bodies of water together for transportation. Railroads were not around until a few years before the war, but they were an important contributor - transporting became faster and cheaper, again, which increased the number for more slaves. With the train, transportation became transcontinental which became vital during the war. Due to all of these important technological contributions the demand for slavery grew leading up to the bloody Civil War.

In conclusion since the beginning of our country's time it had been built on corruption and on unsteady ground. The institutions of slavery made are country this way. From the beginning it should have been known are country was deemed to fall because of the great dispute everyone felt over slavery. It was inevitable that this war was going to happen, and it seeme

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Approximate Word count = 1569
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History