In the 19th century, slavery was a huge part of American society. The country relied on slavery for more than half of its export revenue. Millions of people were enslaved based solely on their race, ignoring all other characteristics like education and class. Slavery was a huge problem in American society, but a huge profitable industry as well.

Slavery was economically entrenched in society by the early 1800s. With the invention of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin in 1793, the amount of slaves in the US began to grow to support the newly improved cotton industry. Cotton production dominated the south, and produced 191.8 million dollars in export revenue by the early 19th century. Just under 4 million slaves worked in the cotton industry creating 2,280 million pounds of it per year. Slavery was now entrenched in the Unites States, and the abolition of it would cause serious consequences to its economy. If the country were to abolish slavery, it would lose more than half its export revenue, which made abolition nearly impossible. This map shows just how widespread slavery was during the late 18th to early 19th centuries.

In the United States, slavery was a system based completely on race. This affects the way people are treated, and changes societies views on them. Slaves were treated like animals, and weren’t given proper food or shelter. These people weren’t viewed as humans, and their dignity suffered because of it. Frederick Douglass, a former slave and leader in the abolitionist movement, spoke about the dignity of black people during his “Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro” speech in 1852. He said, “What to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer, the day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty, to which he is the constant victim." He pointed out how blacks were been witness to the celebration of freedom by the people who were taking their own freedom away. He believed that this was just one of the cruel ways that American citizens were undermining the rights of the slaves.

In the US, slavery was based solely on race, with no regard to any other human characteristics. People saw the black slaves not as other human beings, but property that they owned. They held no regard for any qualities these slaves had, such as an education or skills. One example of this injustice was Abdul Rahman, a prince from Futa Jalon in Africa, who was taken and sold as slave in America. No one believed that he was a prince, and it took them decades to realize that he was also extremely well educated. These traits were ignored by his white owners. Plantations all across America refused to acknowledge that these slaves were humans too, and denied them of proper food and shelter.

Without regard to the needs and abilities of the enslaved people, slavery became entrenched in America. Producing huge amounts of money for the country, it would take years before any abolition movements created a large enough impact to abolish slavery.

Sources:

Spread of Slavery Map - http://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/english/US/US18-02.html

Frederick Douglass Speech - http://www.edline.net/files/_BEHdp_/b9a40a0b44d61aac3745a49013852ec4/Morality_of_Slavery_DBQ_Documents.pdf

Information on Abdul Rahman - http://princeamongslaves.org/module/comparing.html