Bone of contention between former slaves and whites in the South

Bone of contention between former slaves and whites in the South

Thesis Statement

The major reasons of conflict between the former slaves and the white Americans were control of land and labor.

Introduction

New World and Asia were a center of cultivation of cotton a long time before Europeans began to settle in America. Cotton was initially cultivated by English colonists who used it make clothes which were spun at home. After the American Revolution, the production of cotton significantly increased as the supplies of European cloth was cut off. However, the production of cotton took its major leap when demand of raw cotton from textile industry in England was increased. Increase in demand called for machinery which would increase the yield. An efficient cotton gin was manufactured to separate cotton fibers from the seeds in 1973. The production increased even more when the western lands were opened and high quality species of Mexican cotton were bred. Initially, the hub of cotton production spread from South Carolina and Georgia to Alabama and Mississippi, but the heart of cotton production was shifted to the south and west during the 19th century. The rate of production increased 2000 times from 1791 to 1860. Over 60% of the total cotton of the world was being produced by the United States of America by 1840. People migrated south due to the boom economic explosion caused by cotton. It increased the wealth among the local residents. The economic boom also resulted in the provision of funds like railroads, etc which could be used for the transportation of the crop and increased territories. Cotton mills and cotton fields gave rise to a number of problems. The mills caused issues of inequality in white Americans whereas the African Americans on the fields suffered from racial discrimination which was integrated with African American slavery. The relationship existing between crops and slavery is not an easily comprehendible one. The only area where slavery was not declining in the late 18th century was Upper South. Other than the Upper South, slavery existed everywhere and the crops can not be blamed for bringing it about. Even though crops did not bring about slavery, they certainly did expand the custom westward. Whites proved from their actions how much importance they gave to color and how much they believed that people of color should be deprived of economic and political liberty. They accepted African Americans as slaves without question and slowly removed southern Indians from the crops. This paper analyses the reasons that lead to the contention between the former slaves and the white Americans.

Discussion

By the mid of the 19th century, the Southern political economy was almost completely dependent on cotton and slaves. This political economy was an important factor causing tension and apprehension between North and South. The major causes of the tension was the possibility that the cultivation of cotton crops would steadily continue to go west in the future and the view that slave ...