Capitalism: The cause of slavery in the American South
Uploaded by Admin on Jan 22, 1999
The American South, had a social system which was distinct in many ways. There was an economy relative to the region, where class structure and a system of racial differences which caused the South to become unique to the rest of the nation. Historians such as James Henretta have said that Capitalism was the cause of all evil within the American South. American Capitalism defined by Max Weber is " a greed for gain", and "acquisition by force, ... whether directly in war or in the form [of] exploitation of subjects". This type of lifestyle within a growing nation could not work with the gentry class which was moving into the region unless there was people to do the work on the farms for them. At first there were indentured servants, but this system of work only worked for a limited time as these servants would work their time of servitude and then leave on their own. The American farmer in the south needed more control on their workers and needed to know that they ( the workers ) weren't going to just leave and start up their own farm for themselves. Thus the manipulation of slave labor became the answer for capitalism, and from the use of black slave labor, tension began to rise between the slaves brought from Africa, and the land holders of the South.
Tension between Slaves and land owners have been strong in the South for many years, and one might say that the cause of it is the ways of which the Black slaves of plantations and farms were treated. The founders of the Carolina colonies were not only interested in the use of slaves in the solution of their labor problems of too much work not enough workers, but they had a very big material interest.
The use of slave labor, was a coerced, cash-crop system of labor from which slavery became an economic necessity because for a person who owned land they needed workers, and these workers were predominantly Negro slaves brought in sold from Africa. To southern colonists, slavery was first an economic institution solely for the purpose of solving an economic problem, that problem - work cost too much money so the colonists implemented forced labor for economic gain. So slavery provided the basis for a special Southern economic and social life which had continued on until the Civil war.
The...