Week 3- Slavery

Throughout this past week, we studied industrial slavery and its affects on masters, economy, and slaves themselves. Slavery in the mid 1800's was such a humongous thing. Meaning it effected almost everything Americans did. When creating new states and expanding the borders of the country, everytime, the debate of whether or not that state, be it Kentucky, Louisiana, or Alabama, would start up once again. In fact this issue got so big, that eventually congress had to pass a law stating that if the new territory was south of a specific point of latitude, it would be a slave state. If the territory was north of that line, it would be free. Both the Mason-Dixon Line and the Missouri Compromise dealt with this line. In terms of economy, some states, those in the South, became so dependent on slavery, that if for any reason it was to end, southern states would probably be utterly destroyed. This is because all labor was done by slave. Cotton had become the new tobacco, and the cotton gin made the business of slavery fifty times more profitable. So there was no reason for the South to try factories because the slave business was so good. The last effect of slavery is on the slaves themselves. Many people think that there were no revolts, that the slaves did not try to rise up and stand for themselves. That is simply not true. There were several of these revolts. Some were successful, some weren't but each came with the same risks. Either failing or succeeding, thousands of slaves, men women and children would be tortured to ensure they would not try to do this again. These are the general effects slavery had on America in the 1800s.