History of Slavery in America: Rise, Fall, and Impact

Running head: HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA
HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA
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1HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA
The history of slavery in America dates back to its earliest colonial days of the Dutch
in the early 17th century, followed by that of the British, and its subsequent rise and fall in the
18th and 19th centuries when slavery and slave trade shaped the political scenario of America
to a great deal. It was one of the chief reasons behind the American Civil War between the
Northern and Southern states (Calomiris & Pritchett, 2016).
The pro-slavery attitude of the southerners were triggered by the emergence of cotton
gin and cotton plantations in the south, which was a result of a huge demand for raw
materials in the British Cotton Textile industry (Olmstead & Rhode, 2018). Before that,
slavery in America was on the decline. Industrial developments had been more in the North
as compared to the South, which was still highly dependent of agriculture, especially that of
tobacco. Plantation owners saw a chance of flourishing business, but it would require a
considerable amount of human capital. This paved the way for a growth of slave trades from
various colonial lands, mostly of Africa and the Caribbean (Du Bois, 2017).
It is strongly believed that the then plantation aristocrats, unlike the previous
aristocrats of the country, were originally middle class people with bourgeois mentality.
Many of them originally came from a background of small-scale yeoman farming. The
newness and instability of their aristocracy, along with a fairly enormous political, economic,
and social supremacy, prevented them from looking beyond their own benefits and thereby
patronizing slavery. Slavery was also hugely supported by a large number of non-aristocratic
white southerners who had less or no slaves working under them. This can be attributed to the
dependency of many small-scale farmers on cotton gin and financial or other kinds of help,
like livestock or modest crops, which they provided to the plantation owners (Olmstead &
Rhode, 2018). Many of them had their establishments within these farms and supervised the
work of the slaves. Democracy played a huge role for the defence of slavery in the south. The
southern states were more democratic than their northern counterparts, with a lot of people