Fogel And Engerman Summary

The author also explores the profitability of slavery as an institution, as while the tendency of slave owners to keep their capital invested in slaves rather than industry resulted in a lack of economic diversification in the South, it also resulted in great profits during times of high demand for agricultural products. Phillips states that more research is required in this area.

In the South, cotton plantations were the main source of revenue during the antebellum period. From Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, to the development of the sewing machine, this greatly increased the demand for cotton to be export from the South to England and New England. Plantation owners could get many acres of land for little money, especially after the 1830 Indian Removal Act. These plantations depended on a large force of slave labor to cultivate and harvest the crops of the plantations. The United States expanded south and west, and slaves not only provided labor, but they could not quite or demand higher wages. This ensured that

Slavery was an important economic factor, in the South, from colonial time through the early years of the United States to the end of the Civil War. The methods used by the slaveholder, who owned large scale plantations, in the south were harsh on the slave. Slaves were viewed as material properties used for to be used for economic gain. One large scale plantation owner named John R. Williams wrote to another slave , in a letter, "...Africans do seem to be made to be slaves. Their coarse manners and slow wits show that they need outlet guidance..."1* Masters would do what was necessary to keep the slave obedient and productive. This meant slaves that misbehaved would be physically punished, lose privileges, or maybe even sold, separating them from their families. For these reasons slave often didn 't misbehave, but tension that builds up will be released in often violent ways. This is the reason for frequent slave revolts. The these revolts were often led by a person or a group of people. They would gather the unhappy slaves and lead them to rebel.

On the plantations, slave labor was the primary source of workers. These slaves were brought to the colonies by ship, once they arrived they were sold at auctions. The slave auctions had just men, just women, just children or whole families up for bid. Southern plantations were predominantly black, male slaves. At one point it was believed to be seven male slaves to every one female. The slaves were purchased and then became the property of the

(Cobb, 2015) The south also use one crop plantations, this system was based on agricultural mass production usually a few staple products grow on large plantations such as cotton, tobacco, sugar rice indigo. With the one crop plantation system, slaves was expropriated, while white benefits from crops that were being grown and sold. The term planter has no universally accepted definition but historically in the, Antebellum south Planter generally defines as a person owning property and twenty or more slaves. (Boudless, 2014) It was too hard and expensive for planter (land owner) to grow the crops for themselves to make a decent living. Slaves rights was oppress through free enslave labor to perform and learn mass production distribution. Whites and indenture servant’s and Indians fail to comply for different reason, causing whites to enslave Africans. Slavery was use prominent in the sixteen thorough eighteen century in the south, slaves worked in the fields of the plantations and inside master homes. Plantation economy reap economical off the scale but have historically relied on slavery labor to accomplished profitability particular in the American south. (Boudless, 2014) With slaves doing all the worked, land owner had more fluctuation to experiment and with the crop,

The south for a good while was always fond of using slavery as a cheap source of work. The increase in the number of slaves was when John Rolfe became one of the first to cultivate tobacco in the so called “New World back then in the 17th century. There was good money to be made about the amount of labor that went into the tobacco cultivation was harch, hence why slaves were used. Ever since then, it is obvious to note that slaves dominated the aspect of southern life. Whether that be economically, socially or politically, slaves played an important role in each category.

There was also the psych battle between the farm owners and the overseers of the slaves. I can understand why the ones managing the slaves progress where only ever at a single farm for a year or two before parting ways. Not only is it a physically demanding job but it isn’t a very rewarding one. Those who got paid based on production couldn’t stay at one place for a very long time because more than likely they drove the slaves too hard and risked their health. The book talks of owners who purposefully pushed their slaves to exhaustion for a time period of 7 years only to get rid of them and get others to do the same. I know that they would beat them for disobeying but I don’t know why they wouldn’t want to protect their assets as much as possible, although the reward for doing so must have been great.

Slaves performed many different services, they worked in homes, factories and helped even as skilled laborers but their most common work was in the fields, “Slaves grew a variety of crops including rice, sugar, and tobacco, but the “white gold,” cotton was central to the southern and national economies” (Foner 598-600). Cotton slowly grew into a major US export, with its exportation swelling from only a few thousand bales in the late 1700s to five million bales before the start of the Civil War (Foner 587). With the cotton crop at the time rising to unprecedented levels, not only nationally but also globally, this put extra emphasis and value on the slaves shouldering the vast workload of this economy. “By 1860 the economic value of property in slaves amounted to more than the sum of all the money invested in railroads, banks, and factories in the United States” ( Foner 595). There was so much money and business invested, tied into and benefitting from the exploitation of the free labor of these slaves. Southern Planters had major political pull and a significant portion of this country’s wealth, “Planters dominated the antebellum southern society and politics and exerted enormous influence in National affairs as well. The wealthiest Americans before the Civil War were planters in the South Carolina low country (where rice was the principal crop) and the Mississippi Valley cotton region around Natchez” (Foner 621). I believe that with all the money, power and land that was reliant on the work of the slaves there was no way these southerners were just going to give that up without a

In the South, it was very well known for slaves to be working in plantation fields. The often would work cultivating cotton, tobacco, and sugar. Tobacco was a very popular cash crop, but died out due to the harsh conditions it would give the soil. Moreover, southern states were referred to as Cotton Kingdom. The reason being is because in the southern states, cotton was the major cash crop they grew. In addition, more than 50% of the cotton was grown in the south. Additionally, the culture in the South was quite different compared to the slaves that were in the North. The southern slave states culture was determined by plantation owners and families. The slaves were not authorized to be educated, and only the plantation owners had the right to be educated. They were not allowed to attend school and their culture revolved around the plantations. To add in, their economy revolved around the agricultural plantations. The southern grew cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar cane, and indigo. Many of

     Between the 15 century to the 18 century slavery was very much and economic institution. The Cost factor in those times was very expensive to buy slaves from Africa. This played an important role on the upkeep and how those slaves were treated. There were free blacks who owned slaves of their own. The slaves that were bought were already slaves from the African kingdom. The slaves in the Americas had no rights over themselves and their children had no social status. Slaves who worked on the Hacienda large farms had to produced surplus for regional market places. They overseen by the Haciendado a person who ran the farm. Slavery was not partial to only Africans and Indians but at a later time Asian and Europeans too. The Indians laboring cleaning the silver oar lives were at stake from being poisoned from the mercury used to clean the silver oar.

The South, on the other hand, was highly dependent upon the institution of slavery. It was still primarily an agricultural society that needed as many laborers as possible in order for the plantation owners to make ends meet. According to historian Douglas Harper, “In 1793 came the cotton gin, which brought a 50-fold increase in the average daily output of short-staple cotton, promoted the rapid expansion of a ‘cotton kingdom’ across the Deep South, and made large-scale slavery profitable.” Because of this, the slave became an essential tool to the farmers of the south; more money became invested in slavery rather than in industrial improvements. Based upon the 1860 U.S. Census, there were almost a whopping total of four million slaves in the South alone. In fact, the more slaves an owner had, the more prestige. “Most slave owners owned fewer than five slaves, and only 12 percent of Southerners had twenty or more slaves. Many whites who had no slaves looked with envy upon the wealthy, and to a degree admired them.” This hierarchy had a clearly defined social structure which created distinctions between rich and poor whites as well as racial segregation. This agricultural society and its strict hierarchy only increased the social and racial disparities found in the southern region of the United States.

The majority of the slaves were employed in agricultural areas in the South. By the mid-19th century, a large number of slaves worked in urban areas as well, and about 5% worked in more industrial occupations. The hours of the slave workers were long. The average life expectancy of African slaves was at least 12% lower than whit Americans in 1850 and the infant mortality rate was 25% higher for slaves. Oftentimes slave marriages and families dissolved due to separation. This concept is horrible when you take under consideration that family was the entire basis of African culture.

The Canterbury Tales provides an array of tales, specifically two tales in which one better provides the most meaning and delight compared to the other. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” represents the view and desires of women during that time period. “The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale” describes the type of person the Pardoner is along with how money can be evil. In The Canterbury Tales, “The Pardoner’s Tale”, provides the most moral meaning compared to “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by stating that greed can manipulate people into plotting unspeakable actions unto each other.

In Andreas Capellanus’s The Art of Courtly Love, it states that “Love makes an ugly and rude person shine with all beauty, knows how to endow with nobility even one of humble birth, can even lend humility to the proud.” This means that true love can transform the flaws in different people. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” from the “The Canterbury Tales”, this idea is reflected by the love between a knight and an old crone. The knight is saddened by the fact that he is forced to marry such an ugly, poor, low class woman but once he shows her true love she transforms to a beautiful young woman that is faithful and loyal, and he no longer sees her as poor and low

One choice alters your entire life. When you pick a college to attend, you're choosing a path for the rest of your life to follow. That's why I believe college is worth every penny, late night, missed meal, lost time with friends and meltdown. Once you receive your diploma and you get your first job, everything you endured for those years seems so minuscule. You have the rest of your life for fun and games, but you need to first get a firm foundation to start your life by going to college. However, just receiving your diploma won't get you anywhere. You need to take the initiative and go find work and find your purpose with your chosen degree. College can be one of the best times of your life or you can make it the worst. You can form new relationships