It
all seemed to be going well in the late 18th century for
slaves. Slavery in the New World was
declining. The American and French
Revolutions inspired slaves to revolt and/or run away. Ideas of liberty and freedom encouraged slave
owners in many countries to release their slaves. Masters had freed 10,000 slaves in 10 years. But, slavery wasn’t on the road to
extinction; not in the late 18th century. The number of slaves rapidly increased in the
early 19th century and expanded in many states south west of the
Appalachian Mountains in America. It all
started with the invention of the cotton gin.
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| Cotton Gin Drawing |
The
cotton gin separated the sticky green seeds from the white cotton balls in a
very efficiently in a way that wasn’t time consuming. It was invented by Eli Whitney who wanted to
help the southern farmers make growing cotton more profitable. Little did he know that his invention would once
again increase the population of slaves.
Cotton was a huge economic
source of revenue and profits in the south during the 1790’s. The entire South produced about 1.5 million
pounds. After the invention of the
cotton gin, cotton production spread a lot.
By 1860, the farmers in the South grew 2.28 billion pounds of cotton in
70 years. Cotton was 57% of the nation’s
total export revenue. According to
statistics from Mapping History, the slave population correlates with the amount
of cotton produced.
In 1790, the total slave population of the United
States was approximately 690,000, and most of the slaves were located in the Chesapeake
and Carolina areas. By 1860, the
population of slaves had increased to 3,954,000. The slaves were widespread throughout the
South, but were densely concentrated in specific areas. As more and more
cotton was planted, more and more laborers were needed.
There were many people,
Africans and Americans, who fought hard for slavery and against slavery. John Brown was an abolitionist who worked
with the Underground Railroad and the League of Gileadites. He believed
in using violent means to end slavery with the intent of slave revolts. Some
people in the North called him a martyr and supported his motives, but people
in the South called Brown a murderer and were completely against his methods
and ideas. He led an
unsuccessful raid on the Harper Ferry federal armory which had held weapons.
He was caught and surrounded. Many people were imprisoned and held
hostage for 2 days. He was put to trial and hanged.
George Fitzhugh was a lawyer and
a writer. He was against the abolitionist of slavery. He believed
white people were better than blacks. He travelled to places like Boston
to give speeches about how there should not be slavery. He claimed slaves were the “freest people in
the world” because they have to do is work for 8 or 9 hours per day and everything
else is provided for them: shelter and food and they know that they only have
to work 8 or 9 hours per day. He spoke
about how liberty and equality were destructive and did not bring happiness and
how the only right the slaves should have was the right to die.
People
like George Fitzhugh tend to ignore how slaves are human being just like
them. He claims that slaves are freer
than an average laborer? Well most average
laborer doesn’t get whipped and beaten to death. He isn’t separated from his family and taken
away from his mother country. People
like Fitzhugh chose to remain ignorant to every hardship that the Africans went
through. They are ignorant to the fact
that all men and women should have equal rights because they are all human and
they all live in the same soil.
"Eli Whitney's
Patent for the Cotton Gin." National Archives and Records Administration.
Accessed February 14, 2015. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/cotton-gin-patent/#documents.
"Digital
History." Digital History. Accessed February 14, 2015.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=6&smtID=2.
"Mapping
History." Mapping History. Accessed February 14, 2015.
http://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/english/US/US18-00.html.
Bio.com. Accessed
February 14, 2015. http://www.biography.com/search/John Brown.
George Fitzhugh,
Cannibals All or Slaves Without Masters, Richmond, Virginia, 1857.
Gerald Danzer et al,
The Americans, Evanston, Illinois, McDougall Littell, 1998
