Speeding Slavery

Although slavery has not been around for many years, it will always be a problem and will continue to cast a shadow on the world forever.  In the early 19th century, the total slave population had risen to approximately 1,191,000.  Slaves were in demand because of the booming cotton business.  Slaves were rapidly being brought into the country and transported to the new states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana.  In 1820, the U.S. was producing about 160 million pounds of cotton a year, and cotton accounted for 32% of the nation's export revenue, mostly in the south.  As new lands were being opened, slaves were being brought into the country to be scattered there.  With the intensity of the cotton business increasing, the slave population nearly doubled.  Halfway through the 19th century, the cotton industry was the largest in the south, producing about 1,000,000,000 pounds of cotton.  The slave population had risen to about 3.2 million.  Every decade, the amount of cotton produced had risen greatly, as had the slave population.  

The Founder's Constitution mentioned slavery in many articles.  One clause that stood out was  "No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.".  This means that if a slave were to escape from their master and into a free state, the slave would not be considered free.  If the slave were to be caught, they were to be returned to their owner.  This law made it clear that slaves were not treated as people whatsoever, more like property.  

The Founder's Constitution

In class, we also read an article called Cotton is King: Slavery is Entrenched in American Society.  It said that people in the American society genuinely believed that slavery was in decline, with so many slaves escaping and being freed.  In 1793, a man named Eli Whitney invented a revolutionary machine called the cotton gin.  The invention of the cotton gin made it easier to take the seeds out of cotton, making it an easier crop to produce.  Whitney's invention doomed the slaves, giving them more work to do.  As I pointed out earlier, the cotton industry grew greatly, as did the slave population.  

Whitney's Original Patent for his Cotton Gin

Next in class, we focused on one of the more difficult parts of slavery: morality.  Nothing about slavery is moral in any way.  It is just the opposite.  In the 19th century, and person of color or of African was considered a slave, not a person.  For example, we watched a docudrama called Prince Among Slaves, a story of Prince Abdul Rahman, from Futa Jallon, Africa.  Prince was very influential in his land, and had many responsibilities.  He ended up being captured, taken to America and sold to a white master in Mississippi.  The whites regarded him as any other slave, and treated him pretty poorly.  Little did they know, he was a man of power and wealth back at his home where he should've been.  This documentary showed that the whites did not care about slaves' personal lives or family lives, they just treated them like slaves. 

After the docudrama, our class split up into groups and each researched an abolitionist.  John Brown was a militant abolitionist who led a raid on a federal armory called Harpes Ferry, in hopes of giving the stolen weapons to slaves so they could become free from their masters. He was very opposed to slavery. Brown also took part in the underground  railroad, gave land to free African Americans and eventually established the League of Gileadites, a group formed with the intention of protecting black citizens from slave hunters.  Brown was a ruthless man, but he had good intentions.   

John Brown and a some descriptions
of him.