The Profitability of Slavery

A detailed Summary of The Profitability of Slavery

When people think "slavery", they view it as the dehumanizing and degradation of the African race solely because of the color of their skin. People do not see that there were profits to be made with our African ancestors. In the eighteenth century, our ancestors were stripped of their name, and their culture, to become a forced employee to the American white man. They were brought from our motherland of Africa to be clean shaven and dipped in palm oil in order to present a more well groomed look for the "planters" interested in good slaves for their plantations. Taken from their homes and brought into a new social structure and a different dialect of culture, many slaves showed no signs of emotion from such treatment. Much stronger individual slaves maintained hope and long term prosperity. With the known proviso of only types of labor, numerous slaves could not handle this subjugation, and could not hide their feeling of pain and anguish especially, when families felt the depreciation of their worth ; as slaves were exhibited to the buyers and presented like well groomed horses. These slaves were forced into what is considered free labor. They were not getting paid for their long days-- sweating, many times having "cotton p

" ...found cheaper to work a slave to death in a few years and to buy a new one than to care for him in sickness and old age,"

Among the various sharecropping like sugarcane, rice, and wheat, Cotton picking had become the most dynamic area in economic activity in the United States. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the southeastern states had grown most of the cotton . By approximately 1821, the south-central states were producing one third of the cotton in the United States. By 1834, the coastal states produced one hundred sixty million pounds ; While Alabama , Mississippi, and Louisiana and other newly settled areas dominated production with two hundred ninety seven and a half million pounds. As the income of Southern United States planters grew rapidly, the news of the prosperity found its way back to Europe and migration to America increased. The demand for slaves grew naturally, and the prices of slaves increased as well. With the natural increase of profit and the high demand for slaves, it is common sense to assume that the product -- being the slaves, were well taken care of and paid accordingly because of their remarkable production. Any one of us would assume that a boss would know that special care should be done to the worker who is doing a good job so he would continue to preform such dutiful tasks. Ironically, this was not the case for the African slaves.

This was not important to the white man-- and still isn't. The fact that Negroes did not have a choice to be here yet are penalized for lack of effort is ignorant. Negroes worked for years without pay, while the capitalists earned more than two hundred million annually from the cotton kingdom solely. Hence, if it was not for the Africans, the cotton industry wouldn't have been successful. It was an economic bonus for the planters to have such well conditioned slaves-- able to preform physical labor beyond what could be done from the white people. However, it is very unfortunate that today, Negroes are still only considered for jobs that require manual labor. It seems that the effects of slavery have not vanished; just shifted. Many present day working Negroes are still doing active labor professions-- even in retail occupations! In the 1800's, there were almost two million slaves in the Southern United States alone picking cotton all day long. Today, there is twenty times that amount in the United States still only considered for manual labored jobs that require long hours of work and low wages. Evidently, there is no cotton picking today but there is still a mass amount of Negroes working in factories and even tobacco farming.

Slaves were driven mercilessly. In 1830 , fourteen Mississippi slaves each picked an average of three hundred twenty three pounds a day! It was believed that one slave was responsible for the cultivation of approximately three acres of cotton. Cotton picking required no real skill or trade but took a great deal of time. Many slaves worked from sunrise to sunset and after dark. An average day for a slave ranged from twelve to twenty hour days depending on the time of year. Harvest hours were the longest since the planter was anxious to harvest the crop before it could be seriously damaged by bad weather. 1.8 million African slaves were found on cotton plantations in the Southern states. Mathematically speaking, if each slave was responsible for an average of one hundred fifty pounds-- per day, multiply this by 1.8 million ; there would be approximately three hundred million pounds of cotton produced in just one day by slaves in the Southern states total. How many of us would pick a pound of cotton for a wage? Or perhaps three hundred pounds of cotton for food and shelter even if they lived in poverty? How would a person feel when they found that they were working twelve hour days for a boss who was getting sums of money from their work but they were not getting paid for it? Slaves were fixed in their condition , wit

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Approximate Word count = 3444
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History