Most southerners defended slavery, even though they were not part of the “Plantation Aristocracy.” According to the readings that you have completed, discuss why they supported slavery, and your response to the claims made by its supporters, and explain why it was easier to end the slave trade than to end slavery itself.
Before the emergence of cotton as a primary crop in the south, the invention of the cotton gin, and territorial expansion southward and westward, slavery appeared to be on the decline. These factors, coupled with a rising demand for cotton by the British textile industry, revived the South’s agricultural economy. Although cotton could be grown […]