The+Growth+of+Slavery+in+the+1800's

=Slave Auctions=

Slave auctions were very common in many southern cities in the 1800's. Slaves were sold to the highest bidder, often it was here a slave found himslef split up or seperated from his family. "Spouses were torn apart, mothers parted from their children, brothers, and sisters sent to different states." as stated in "Life Of a Slave On a Southern Plantation". Many of first hand accounts described how they were abused and treated like objects as they where displayed and walked up and down the podium during these auctions, as to show that they where healthy and worth good money. Almost always before a slave auction posters or advertisements were posted to alert people of the coming slave market.



This picture displays a typical slave auction.

Flyers such as this one were a common sight to most Southerners.

Main Areas For Slavery
During the Antebellum (The time before the Civil War) period slavery took place in the South. Although slavery was spread all throughout the South some states did stand out and had more slaves per state than others, such as Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi,and Alabama. Each of these states had over 400,000 slaves. The main reason that slavery was in the South was due to the climate and landscaping which provided an ideal place to grow cash crops. Not only did slaves work on large plantations but also on small farms, in cities and towns, and inside homes. Also slavery was not entirely agriculturaly bound, some slaves worked in the industry. Believe it or not Washington D.C. was one of the main areas for domestic slave trade, passing thousands of slaves through to the plantations of the deep South ever since our capital had been established in the 1800's. Visitors often described the city with disgust at the sight of the holding pens and slave coffles in D.C. It was actually quite ironic that the capital of the "freest" nation in the world was know for its slavery. Sadly slavery in the South would not be abolished until about 1865. This map shows the amount of slave population there was in certain parts of the South.

How was the Economy Effected by Slavery?
Slavery had a great impact on the economy, it had benifits and had some disadvantages. Slavery mainly focused on the agriculture productuion. These were mainly cash crops such as cotton, tabacco, rice, corn, wheat, rye, and so on. At the time the economy was fueled or ran on these cash crops, especially cotton. These crops helped lead to a large economic boom. The South was challenged with suppling the North and England along with some other European countries which needed cotton for their textile mills. At first the supply of cotton was limited due to the fact that the cotton had to be seperated by hand. Soon the problem was answered thanks to Eli Whitney and his invention the Cotton Gin. This machine easily seperated the cotton from its seeds without the need of human labor. With this new invention came the great demand for more slaves. The invention also largely increased the production of cotton. In 1860 the South was at its high peak in the production of cotton, which annually exported two-thirds of the world's supply of the "white gold." It was at that time that the South was crowned with its well deserved tiltle the "Cotton Kingdom." With all this going on the economy quickly grew and allowed for a large flow of cash throughout the U.S. You could say that slavery was a tremendous benifit to America's economy, but keep in mind that all the hard work that allowed the economy to prosper was forced upon the slaves often in a harsh or cruel manner.