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Slavery as an Economic Institution

State Standards

U.S. History I, Topic 3

  • Analyze the effects of industrial growth throughout antebellum America, and in New England, the textile and machinery industries and maritime commerce

    • The impact of the cotton gin on the economics of Southern agriculture and slavery and the connection between cotton production by slave labor in the South and the economic success of Northern textile industries.

  • Describe the role of slavery in the economics of the industrialized North and the agricultural South, explain reasons for the rapid growth of slavery in southern states, the Caribbean islands, and South America after 1800, and analyze how banks, insurance companies, and other institutions profited directly or indirectly from the slave trade and slave labor.

Brief History

Since the founding of this country, the success of the United States’s economy has depended on the institution of slavery. Enslaved men and women were considered an essential labor force on plantations so that raw materials such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton could be exported to Northern states and around the world. Both southern and northern states heavily relied on slavery for their economic success. Southern plantation owners demanded more enslaved men and women as the need for raw materials (especially “King Cotton”) increased due to a growing market.¹ Although some northern states abolished slavery at the end of the 18th century, northern textile industrialists, businessmen, and bankers all profited from slavery through buying and selling enslaved people or the products they helped produce.²

 

Subsequently, a growing emphasis on capitalism and economic success in the United States encouraged individuals participating in the institution of slavery to view enslaved men and women as merely property to be used for labor and not as human beings. As a result of their racist beliefs and desire for profit, owners separated enslaved people from their families, forced them into terrible working conditions, subjected them to violence and denied them many basic rights.³

 

The following film clips, primary sources, and activities shed light on the economic impact of slavery on the United States, while recognizing the dehumanizing experiences of enslaved men and women whose labor played an essential role in this country’s economy.  

 

1. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “Why Was Cotton ‘King?,’” PBS.

2. Kate Shuster, Bethany Jay, and Cynthia Lynn Lyerly, Teaching Hard History: A Framework for Teaching American Slavery (Southern Poverty Law Center: Teaching Tolerance, 2018), 16, 18; Sven Beckert, “America’s first big business? Not the railroads, but slavery,” PBS NewsHour, Feb. 12, 2015.

3. Shuster, et al., Teaching Hard History: A Framework, 6.

Framing Questions

  1. How was the United States’ economy reliant on slave labor both in the North and the South?

  2. How did the economic factors of slavery influence plantation owners’ views and treatment of enslaved men and women?

Film Clips

Clip 1: 1:00 - 2:20 

(*Language Warning: the ‘n-word’)

​

Solomon Northup and other enslaved men are instructed how to cut sugarcane by the overseer. The scene provides insight into the immense physical labor of working on a sugarcane plantation. See chapter XV in Northup's autobiography, Twelve Years a Slave.

Clip 2: 29:32 - 32:08

(*Language Warning: the ‘n-word’)

​

 In this scene, Freeman shows enslavers the enslaved men and women for sale, highlighting certain physical traits to demonstrate how they will be good workers. This scene also portrays the emotional separation of Eliza from her children, reinforcing the notion that enslaved individuals were only viewed as property. See chapter VI in Twelve Years a Slave.

Clip 3: 55:42 - 58:25

(*Language Warning: the ‘n-word’)

​

Solomon (Platt) painstakingly picks cotton in the field of Epps’s cotton plantation. Epps has Solomon and two other enslaved men whipped for their poor work. See chapter XII in Twelve Years a Slave for Northup's description of life on a cotton plantation.

Clip 4: 1:42:00 - 1:45:16

(*Language Warning: the ‘n-word’)

 

Bass discusses the inhumanity of slavery with Epps. While Bass sees the enslaved men he works with as laborers and equals, Epps only views them as property and no better than animals. See Chapter XIX, pages 265-269 in Twelve Years a Slave.

Questions

  1. In what ways do these scenes illustrate the dehumanization of enslaved men and women? And how is the economy of slavery responsible for these views?

  2. What was work like for Northup on plantations, and how was he treated?

  3. What are the different views of slavery depicted in these scenes? How are they representative of the individual’s status/job?

Primary Source Analysis

Primary Source Analysis

twelve years a slave excerpt

slave auction ad & auction notes

harper's weekly illustration

Sarah frances shaw graves interview excerpt

Activities & Assignments

slavery in northern institutions assignment

Students will listen to a podcast episode about the role of Northern banks in the institution of slavery and conduct their own research on the subject.

analyzing maps & data of the role of slavery in the U.S. Economy

A group activity that explores the ways in which slavery played a significant role in the U.S. Economy.

("Jigsaw Activity" structure based on Facing History and Ourselves)

Additional Resources

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