Few institutions could claim such importance in early American history as slavery. Although present in the British colonies in North America since the 17th century, slavery only rose to the forefront of national attention after the revolution. While there were political issues with it early on, as when drafting the Constitution and reaching the three-fifths compromise, the peculiar institution had only demonstrated its full impact in the 19th century. A combination of the industrial revolution and rapid territorial expansion made slavery one of the defining features of the American economy and also one of the most acute political issues. The very existence of slavery created profound economic, demographic, and social – not to mention political – differences between the North and the South. As if that was not enough, the question of slavery also resurfaced in the newly-conquered or colonized West. In short, bonded labor has left a profound impact on the antebellum United States. Economically, it set North hand South upon different paths, socially, it contributed to differences in diversity and exercise of religion, and, politically, it deepened the sectional divide to its logical conclusion in the Civil War.
Since slavery was a type of supplying workforce, its economic impact was the most direct. The peculiar institution was largely responsible for making the American South a predominantly agricultural region. While the South relied on high-value crops since the 17th century, the 19th century took this tendency to the logical conclusion. As the textile industry boomed during the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, the demand for cotton grew so much that it became “the white gold” (Foner 406). The climate of the American South made the slave states all but perfect for growing the new cash crop, which is why they enjoyed a near-monopoly on it in the world market (Foner 406). Admittedly, the slaves themselves were quite expensive due to the import prohibition issued in 1808 (Foner 407). Yet, once acquired, slave labor itself was free of charge, and applying it to growing cotton promised handsome profits. As a result, working cotton was the best way source of income in the South, and those who owned slaves and land had few incentives for doing anything else. Consequently, the South lagged far behind the North in terms of industrialization.
Yet while slavery prevented the South from building plants and factories, it was also instrumental in the industrialization of the North for much the same reasons. As mentioned above, the textile industry was the primary domain of the early Industrial Revolution, and cotton was its most important raw material (Foner 406). Southern plantations provided a stable supply of this valuable resource, and their relatively close geographical proximity made transportations costs lower than for the European manufacturers. As a consequence, the peculiar institution was largely responsible for promoting industrialization in the free states – after all, it was the northern factories that “turned cotton into cloth” (Foner 408). Moreover, the wealth generated by slavery was also responsible for the radical improvements in transportation and notable advances in the banking industry (Foner 407-408). What slavery prevented in the South, it promoted and nurtured in the North, and the rise of the free states to their commercial and industrial prominence depended on the peculiar institution to a considerable degree.
However, the reasons why slavery promoted industrialization in the North while mostly preventing it in the South were not only economic but social as well. As mentioned above, slaves were becoming increasingly valuable after the imports ceased in 1808 – up to the point when the market value of the slave population was greater than that of its “factories, railroads, and banks combined” (Foner 407). However, once owned, slaves provided a cheap and, due to the natural reproduction, renewable source of labor. Thus, Southern slavery created a high entry threshold for those who wanted to profit from it while at the same time keeping the price of labor low, which is why most slaves were owned by a small percentage of the population. Foreign immigrants, unwilling to compete with the cheap slave labor, preferred the North as their destination and supplied its factories with a diverse and technically competent workforce (Foner 409). This made the South more socially homogenous but also hindered its technological and economic development, as the North attracted the vast majority of the newcomers.
Apart from immigration, slavery also affected the exercise of religion in both North and South. In the free states, slavery was not merely forbidden by the law – many religious groups perceived its very existence as an irredeemable sin and took an active stand against it. As early as 1786, George Washington complained that a “society of Quakers, formed for such purposes,” helped one of his slaves escape (“The Underground Railroad”). The origins of the famed Underground Railroad were, at least partially, religious and went back to this anti-slavery interpretation of Christianity (“The Underground Railroad”). In the South, however, Christianity was transformed to support the peculiar institution. Religious arguments, such as tracing the ancestry of African Americans to Ham and, thus, portraying it as sanctioned by the Bible, were prominent in the South (Foner 423). A runaway slave had his reasons to say that “the slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other” (Douglass). Thus, while the vast majority of both Northerners and Southerners belonged to one or another branch of Christianity, their beliefs and exercise of religion were shaped by slavery to a great extent.
Finally, aside from the effects listed above, American slavery was also a considerable political issue, especially when combined with the rapid territorial expansion of the country in the 19th century. Had the United States remained within its original borders, the equal number of the free states and the slave states and their correspondingly equal representation in the Senate would ensure relative political stability. However, due to the westward expansion, slavery became a source of constant political tension, as each new territory was a potential slave state or free state with the obvious implications for the representation in the national legislature. This state of things necessitated political compromises between the North and the South to preserve the equilibrium, such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Its provisions ensured the simultaneous admission of Maine and Missouri into the Union and also prohibited slavery in the rest of Louisiana purchase north of the 36°30′ latitude (“Missouri Compromise”). This geographical distinction has further solidified the bipolar division of the USA into free North and slaveholding South and was supposed to delineate the borders between them for the further westward expansion.
These hopes were in vain, as the slave states repealed the Missouri Compromise mere decades after its adoption. The Northern American continent is more spacious to the north of 36°30′, and, under the conditions of the Missouri compromise, westward expansion naturally favored the free states. This development was a potential threat to the equal senatorial representation sought by the slave ones. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the free territories to slavery by allowing the population of Kansas to decide whether the state constitution would endorse slavery (Monroe). Stephen Douglas, a prominent Democrat, was instrumental in the process even though he eventually came to oppose the expansion of slavery to Kansas (Monroe). Still, when Douglas and Lincoln competed for the election to the US Senate from Illinois, the issue of slavery featured prominently in their rhetoric. The Lincoln-Douglas debates became one of the signs of the incoming Civil War and a testimony that slavery was becoming more and more of a political issue. While the slave states wanted senatorial parity with the free ones, territorial expansion inevitably provoked conflicts between the two regardless of the compromises previously achieved.
As one can see, the peculiar institution had left a significant impact on the American economy, society, and politics in the decades prior to the Civil War. In economic terms, slavery solidified the agricultural economic orientation of the South while also promoting the industrialization of the North. From a social perspective, slavery discouraged most immigrants from entering the American South, thus ensuring that the North had a more culturally diverse population. Apart from that, slavery had also affected the exercise of religion in North and South alike. Finally, slavery was ever a political issue, especially when combined with the rapid territorial expansion and the admission of new states into the Union. Missouri Compromise was an attempt to settle it once and for all, but, as the Kansas-Nebraska Act demonstrated some three decades later, the sectional division was far too severe to hope for a resolution at once peaceful and permanent.
Works Cited
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself with Related Documents. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty: An American History, vol. 1; to 1877. 5th ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2017.
“Missouri Compromise,” Infoplease. Web.
Monroe, R. D. “Debating Douglas on the National Stage, 1857-1858.” Northern Illinois University. Web.
“The Underground Railroad.” PBS. Web.