the Slave trade, in which the Southern economy became dependent on the use of cheap labor in the form of African slaves. (Currier & Ives 1884).
Around the same time as increased industry in the North and plantation style farms in the South, the American Revolution created a new country. The founding fathers of this new nation debated on how this fledgling country would be governed. The institution of slavery became an issue from the very beginning. Many pointed out the hypocrisy of declaring all men were created equal, yet still allowing for certain peoples to be held in bonds. The Declaration of Independence’s author, Thomas Jefferson summed up this feeling in a letter, “The clause, too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue it.
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Thus, slaves were legally traded from slave hunters to southern farmers. Auctions became commonplace in the South, as plantation owners needed cheap labor to harvest their crops, particularly cotton. Slaves were sold right off the ships they were transported in (To Be Sold 1940) But, even after the trade was made illegal, the institution survived. Slaves were deemed property, and all children birthed by a slave, was then considered property of the master. Slavery grew through this natural process, as well as with the now illegal trading of human beings. Life for slaves was harsh. “I was born a slave, reared in the Southern hot-bed until I was the mother of two children, sold at the early age of two and four years old. I have been hunted through all of the Northern States, but no, I will not tell you of my own suffering—no, it would harrow up my soul, and defeat the object that I wish to pursue. Enough—the dregs of that bitter cup have been my bounty for many years.” (Jacobs