At the time the U.S. Constitution was written, why were there more slaves in the South than in the North?

Question

This is for a Political Science class. Thanks!

Answer 1

When the US Consitution was written, which was PRE-industrial revolution most of the USA was an agricultural nation.

So why were there more slaves in the south?

Two main reasons I can think of:
1) Several Northern states were founded on religious principals that viewed slavery as abherrent and as thus did not use slaves to till the fields. Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and parts of upstate New York come to mind.
2) The north was more densely populated which meant that the farms were smaller and usually tended by the farmer and his immediate family. These small holdings didn't lend themselves to large scale slavery. Instead of large cotton plantations farms in the north were smaller and geared towards local markets.

Most of the slaves in the north were house slaves, such as butlers, maids and tutors. Since only the upper classes could afford these more expensive type of trained slaves they were far fewer in number.

Answer 2

The south was a agricultural economy. There were very few machines to do the farming and it was labor intensive. Especially cotton which had to be picked by hand. The north was an industrial economy, which used child labor and over worked under paid adults who worked in sweat shops and factories, but had to have some skills and knowledge so slaves were not a good option.

Answer 3

It had to do with population and production of each area. The north was the center for refinement and manufacture and was heavily populated. The south was all agriculture and sparsely populated. It was the same then as now agriculture requires a lot of labor and not a lot of skill. In heavily populated areas labor is not hard to come by,there are people willing to work . the profit margin on manufactured goods was much higher than on raw materials.the north bought cheap and sold high. The southern states were not allowed to trade with anyone other than the northern state.They were subject to taxes and regulations that profited the north . In order to make a profit in agriculture you had to have slave labor to do the work. If the population of the south had been larger or if they had had equal representation in congress things might have been different.

Answer 4

most people in the north worked in factories. and the ones that did farm had farms small enough that they could be run by a family. southern plantations were usually larger and required more man power. and so rather than pay men a decent wage they bought slaves.

Answer 5

More crops in the south, working farms

Answer 6

They were all in the South.

Answer 7

Where all the Big Plantations were