Slavery & america economics?

Question

explain how slavery was a benfit to the US's economy and added to her growth

Answer 1

This is a subject which is really too large and varied for this venue, and if you are really interested the book listed in the source section is probably the definitive work on the subject. That said. . . . . . .

First you have to place this in context of a pre-industrialized agriculture system and therefore one which was very labor intensive. Additionally there was the availability of slaves from the massive slave trade in Africa (which grew out of Islamic slave trade and continues today) providing the working force. Further, income into the United States was critical to a young growing nation and monies generated from export were primarily dependant on agricultural commodities. Of these agricultural crops cotton far exceeded all others for generating such revenues and this was based on a customer base throughout Europe. This dependency on agricultural exports was further enhanced by the 1828 tariffs which placed high taxation on imported manufactured goods.

From an economic perspective slaves (in the Americas) became capital goods with high value. For example, during the 1850s prime field hands traded at about $1,200 (in today’s money at least $21,000). Of course such cost was impacted by estimated future labor being derived from the slave with such as age, health, skills, gender, reliability being considered. In general, slave prices relative to age peaked in late slave’s twenties. Other considerations of such as skill with such as a black smith could increase such pricing by about a 55% increase, while females would be about 80% of male pricing.

In general return on investment for the slave holder was about 8% to 12% making it about the equivalent to the return on capital for textile and railroad firms of the time. As with any business boom times could increase these returns and down periods could even cause bankruptcy.

However, due to the factors mentioned, slavery was profitable, in particular for the large plantations which was a small minority of the populace of the South. With or without a war, mechanization of the cotton industry would have replaced a labor dependant farming.

As a point of information, owning and using slaves was not free. This idea comes from a misunderstanding of how the slavery institution worked. In addition to the capital expenditure, there was the maintenance of the slave. In most societies that used slaves the slave had the opportunity to acquire wealth to eventually purchase their freedom which usually occurred when they were reaching the end of their most productive years. In the American South this did occur but it was rare due to the high investment (value of) in the slave.

Answer 2

In the short term Slavery made Cotton King which was the most important export of that era. Tobacco, rice, coffee and cane sugar were also large exports.

Agriculture had a fixed market in those days because of the amount of time it took to transport goods. Thus without these items that had a long shelf-life the South would have been no different than Australia's Outback.

The Southern Savanna was also swamp and marshland which had to be filled for cultivation which is what the slaved did. A racist stereotype was that Black could endure the heat better than any other race and so the hot south was in ernest. Indirectly slaves introduced yams, rice and various Africa foods that are now common American dishes, and the leftover meat picking from the masters also became modern dishes. Further Slaves built many of the mansions,and were the South main source for the introductions to prostitution!

All of these easements gave the White South the opportunity to live like royalty. That's pretty remarkable for the Anglo Colonist because they themselves were, in the south, largely the offspring of indentured servants, brought here to pay off debts and petty crimes by labouring at the same tasks!As time pasted they even flaunted their wealth from slavery as the new Rome, in their minds anyway and still have that kind of pompus upper class!

Answer 3

Slaves picked a LOT & I mean a lot of cotton & other agricultural goods, but a lot of cotton from the fields. They did all that work for free. They had no choice in that, they were considered property. America became the agricultural capitol of the world. America made lots of $$ on exporting the goods. So much that not only did the plantaion owners thrive, but the overall economy from the taxes the country made on exporting it. Plus seemstesses made $ making & selling the clothes from the cotton. & it just goes on & on. Then one day this guy Eli Whitney comes along & creates this little device called the cotton gin....This eventually lead to the cival war & the downfall then reunification renewal of the United States of America. I'd tell ya more about the cotton gins contribution to the cival war, but you didn't ask about that * your probably already bored.

Answer 4

The south was an agricultural society and that is labor intensive. The use of slaves made it possible to grow crops, like cotton, to sell on the world market.

Answer 5

It was Thomas Jefferson who said, " The only thing more valuable than the slaves was the land itself." The expansion of the "Cotton Kingdom" was built on the backs of free labor which established the US as one of the richest nations in history.