African slavery in the United States - Essay Example

There are several economic factors that contributed to the African slavery in the United s. Patterson (2002) asserts "Slavery was born out of economic motives. Its perpetuation was driven by economic factors, and even many efforts by abolitionists to end slavery had economic motives. Indeed, the decision to use slave labor was a deliberate, rational choice made by men who sought economic gains that were greater than what they could obtain from wage labor or indentured servitude" (para. 2). To be sure, in a capitalist system in which the promise of profit drives behavior, the institution of slavery would not have survived in America, and a war would not have been fought over it, had it not yielded an economic benefit to those who supported slavery.

Three economic factors contributing to slavery included (1) labor costs, (2) labor availability, and (3) profitability. On a micro level, these factors drove plantation owners to seek slave ownership. Yet, there was a much broader economic impact from slavery. "A general scholarly consensus contends that slavery was profitable. Some scholars make the further claim that slave labor not only contributed greatly to the economic growth and development of America but also helped finance the Industrial Revolution, stimulate the rise and growth of cities and industries, and fuel capitalistic development" (Patterson, 2002, para. 3). In effect, as insidious of an institution slavery was, America likely owes much of its status as a global economic power to the fact that slavery existed.

This may raise the question of why slavery was not embraced in the North to the extent it was in the South. Arguably, if slavery was so economically advantageous, it should have been more widely adopted by those seeking to gain economic benefit. The answer lies in the nature of how slave labor was deployed. "It was much more profitable in the South. Plantation agriculture made much more use of slave labor, but with the kind of agriculture that developed in the North, grain agriculture, you had to find other uses for slaves once you were out of the periods of heaviest use, planting and harvest.

It made it a much more complicated system" (Hill, 2005, para. 27). Thus, the nature of agriculture in the South, tending toward year-round labor intensive crops such as cotton and tobacco, resulted in slavery making economic sense where it would not in a region that grows annual harvest crops such as corn and wheat. There is little doubt that labor costs were perhaps the biggest economic factor contributing to the institution of slavery in America. While the up-front cost of purchasing slaves was no doubt significantly higher than wage labor would be, the right purchase at the right price would invariably be a good economic investment.

Without having to pay wages, a slave would likely pay for himself within a relatively short period of time in an environment where year-round labor is required. Moreover, as the industrial revolution began to hold out the offer of better paying jobs in factories for wage workers, the availability of labor became another economic factor supporting slavery. All of these variables enabled southern plantations to turn out more output at lower cost, thus increasing profitability. Although economic gain was a strong factor supporting the institution of slavery, the intangible cost to American society was enormous, and is still being paid today.

"The legacy of slavery has permeated and continues to permeate every facet of our society. Because of slavery and its attendant racism, African Americans have had, and still have, to endure gross and historic inequities on a political, social, and economic level. The ubiquitous, unfortunate influence of slavery appears in such phenomena as Black Codes, Jim Crow, segregation, disfranchisement, the creation of ghettos, the eugenics movement, the Civil Rights Movement, integration, busing, The Bell Curve, the O. J. Simpson trial, the backlash and ensuing backslide regarding affirmative action, the rise of hate groups, and the fact that there has never been a black president.

The list could be longer, but the point is that the legacy of slavery is alive and well, and its consequences influence the social, political, and economic state of race relations in the United States" (Patterson, para. 4). References Hill, M. (2005, October 30). Forgotten slaves. The Sun, 1F. Patterson, J. (2002, January/February). Slavery revisited: Using economic reasoning to teach about the past and present. The Social Studies, 93(1), 40.