Question

Discuss the economics of slavery in the 19th century during the cotton gin.

Answer 1

The country of Portugal was one of the first countries to start selling slaves. Portugal found out about selling slaves for profit by sheer luck. The first slave purchase is said to have taken place in 1441 when the Portuguese caught two African males while they were along the coast. The Africans in the nearby village paid them in gold for their return.

As to an economic standpoint, Southerners argued that freeing slaves would cause America's economy to collapse. Free blacks, they said, would cause fierce competition in factory jobs, taking away many of immigrant jobs held by the Irish.
In the nineteenth century, supporters of slavery in used legal, religious, and economic arguments to defend the institution of slavery. Southern plantation owners depended heavily on slavery. Cotton, their main export, required tedious slave labor. Thus, southern supporters of slavery employed whatever tactics they could in order to keep their slaves from emancipation, which worked and extended slavery for a few more decades.
One of the ways Southerners defended slavery was through legal means. In 1831-1832, Virginia legislature debated and eventually defeated various emancipation proposals. This legislation was a turning point in the pro-slavery fight, because soon after all the salave states enforced harsher slave codes and also ban emancipation. Also, when Northern abolitionists were increasingly vocal against slavery, in 1836, southerners charted the gag appeal, which required all antislavery appeals to be ignored without debate. Southerns went so far as to even break the laws in the Bill of Rights. In 1835, the government ordered southern postmasters to destroy abolitionist material and told officials to arrest postmasters who did not destroy abolitionist writing. Thus, they were breaking the 1st amendment in the Bill of Rights which guarenteed Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.

In the nineteenth century, supporters of slavery in used legal, religious, and economic arguments to defend the institution of slavery. Southern plantation owners depended heavily on slavery. Cotton, their main export, required tedious slave labor. Thus, southern supporters of slavery employed whatever tactics they could in order to keep their slaves from emancipation, which worked and extended slavery for a few more decades.

the West Indies, slaves searched for an outlet to vent their frustrations. To be successful in alleviating their frustrations and resisting in some way, slaves had to unite. One of the more popular ways slaves accomplished this was through the Christian religion. When it was allowed by the planters, Christianized slaves could resist the institution of slavery by looking to God. The ideals that Christianity held were easy for Africans to understand and adapt. Doing so meant that the slaves would lose some of their African heritage, but the plusses far outweighed the minuses. Slaves "Africanized" Christianity in the West Indies and thus created a new culture among them. Those who chose, or who were allowed, to be baptized were successful at resisting slavery and uniting together with a common interest in God. However, the road to Christianity was often bumpy and dangerous. The missionaries from Europe regularly faced opposition by whites and indifference by blacks. In the end, the effort proved to be worth the time and energy invested. The Christianization of slaves was a major factor in bringing an end to the oppression that was the slave trade.