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How Did Slavery Affect America's Economy

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For Slavery: The United States of America has the highest ranking economy in the world, but it wasn't always like this. Back in the 1800s, America did not have a great economy. However, the economy rose by 14-15% per year on average. It could be said that without slavery, America’s economy would be nearly as good as it is today. This is due to the fact that the U.S. was purchasing enslaved people from African countries for a price and more money was being passed around due to the legal purchase of enslaved people. Not to mention, the cotton industry nearly quadrupled in production. Cotton became America's number one export, especially after the cotton gin was invented, which made cotton incredibly easy for plantation owners to mass produce and sell for a huge profit. At its peak, the U.S. was producing a whopping 75% of the world's cotton, while this number is definitely impressive, it would simply not be possible without slavery. Cotton wasn't the only thing that enslaved people were supposed to gather, some plantations grew sugar, coffee, tobacco, olives, and grapes. This made the agricultural economy in America extremely powerful and it boosted the entire nation's economy by huge amounts. The entirety of America's economy would not be the same without slavery practices, as the agricultural output of America was so powerful …show more content…

Combining tobacco and cotton in the 1800s economy makes it one of the most wealthy countries in the world because of the exports of these two important crops. Since plantation owners didn't have to pay their workers, they were able to make even more money which they then used to buy more land which they could use to plant more cotton and they could sell that for money to buy more enslaved people and so on. This was called the “slave cycle” and it made slavery in the U.S. even more

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