Slavery Dbq

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During the early 19th century America was going through a phase of rapid expansion, pushing towards the West. As pioneers traveled along, the need for faster transportation was a major concern. To a certain degree did these changes help bring the country together, beginning with an easier way for the transportation of goods and ideas. There were more jobs being created by factories, but at the same time, it created labor movements. A consequence of being able to transport goods faster was the demand for slaves increasing. The internal improvements during the 1820s brought a sense of nationalism, but in some ways it decreased the amount of nationalism. The early 18th century brought all new ways of transportations, such as canals and roads. …show more content…

Cotton is an very labor intensive plant that required a lot of time to be cultivate. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, creating in 1793, let the processing of the cotton occur much faster. The demand for cotton in the North and in Great Britain created a need for more labor. Slaves were the answer to the cotton problem. Plantation owners could use the money they made from selling cotton to purchase more slaves. The fact that there was a 400% increase of slaves in America was astonishing. A single creation of new technology changed the future of African Americans. People who hated slavery detested the sudden increase of slaves, mostly from the Northerners and even some Southern whites called for an end to slavery. But there was nothing they could really do about it because cotton impacted America in an tremendous way. 58% of American exports were cotton! At first 700,000 bales of cotton were being produced, to almost 5 million bales being made. These figures are significant in understanding that transportation created a demand for a product, that created a demand for a workforce, that created a demand for equality. Cotton product could be thought of as bringing moneymakers together, but pushing slaves and whites apart. It was ultimately breaking America up because abolitionist were beginning to voice their opinion, and people who loved slavery shot back their opinion. Cotton was a factor in why the Civil War had to be fought, pulling the North and South apart. The Transportation Revolution was a domino effect that would sooner or later lead to the Civil

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