The North and South- slavery and industrial development?

Question

In regards to the time before the Civil War and during the Harrison, Tyler, Polk presdiencies.... Why did non-slaveholding white Sotherners tolerate and support slavery? Why was the antebellum South, when compared to the North, underdeveloped industrially?

Answer 1

Be gentle on me, I'm not American- but this is what I recall reading in World History:

Why was the antebellum South, when compared to the North, underdeveloped industrially?

They had no need to be! Their economy was quite different than that of the North, and didn't rely on industry. Even though the vast majority of southerners didn't own slaves, they still saw it as their way of life/ part of their religion (that they were superior) and percieved the North's attempts at emancipation as insulting to their society.

Answer 2

The south had an agrarian society. It had been founded as such even in pre-colonial times. The first English settlement in the New World, Jamestown Virginia, was founded to grow tobacco (as well as for naval stores and timber) Initially the back breaking agricultural work was done by indentured servants, but in very short order Africans were brought in - first as indentured servants, but later, within a generation they were converted to live long slaves. That moment - when white landholders decided to not allow the African indentured servants to earn their freedom is one of the most shameful moments in our history. This all happened long before the American Revolution...so if you fast forward to the pre-Civil War era of Harrison, Tyler and Polk you see a culture that has not experienced any other life. They believe that slavery is justified by Bibical scripture and because they believed that Europeans were superior to all other races. Non-slave holding whites felt the same. They may have been poor white trash, but they felt superior to any slave.

The economy of the south was controlled by the landholders. They grew raw materials like indigo, cotton or flax and sold these products to the English or other vendors who then turned it to cloth and sold the cloth back to the US. They were not interested in starting their own mills; they were making plenty of money selling their raw materials. The landholders with all the capital didn't invest in much industry (there are some exceptions to this of course) so there was much less industrialization than in the north.

Slavery took many interesting forms, not just farm work as is typically thought. Charlestown SC city government owned slaves who constructed public streets or were hired out as a source of income.

Somerset Place in NC was not a family plantation. It was a corporation formed to cut timber around land Phelps. Food was raised on the plantation for the workers and overseers/ but their primary occupation was cutting timber and running the sawmill works.

Thomas Day in Milton NC was a freeman who owned his own cabinetry shop and built beautiful furniture. He owned slaves and he had white apprentices.

Slavery was, without a doubt, a stain on the US. Acceptance of slavery and the white supremacist philosophy that supported it made hypocrits of the Founding Fathers and all the white Americans who believed that the US was a place of freedom; where all men would be created equal.

Answer 3

wow, some people need to read a political history book. Salvery was important for several reasons 1) was need low cost workers for the agricultural economy that dominated southern business but just as importantly was the 3/5 rule that allowed determined the representation in Congress. Freeing the slaves was viewed as a political attack on the rights and freedoms of Southerners. Remember, Slavery was NOT the reason for the civil war.

Answer 4

The south had industry. Many machines were used to help harvest and process cotton.

Anyway, non-slaveholding southerners supported slavery for the same reason people support hating gays, laziness and ignorance.