To what extent was salvery a harsh but profitable institution Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Slavery in the United s: To what extent was it a harsh but profitable Historians have long discussed the role of slavery in the agricultural boom of the 1700-1800s in the southern United States. In terms of national history, few disputes have been as hotly contended as the utilization of slavery for economic prosperity and the justifications that utilization entails. Although historians discuss the institution of slavery in terms of human rights and race issues, slavery in the United States has primarily been interpreted by historians as the economic issue that it was. Influential thinkers of the field, such as Peter J. Parish, Ulrich B. Phillips, Gavin Wright, Fogel and Engerman, have concluded their theses as proponents or challengers of slavery as an institution, not on moral grounds, but mainly on principles of economy. The discussion, however, whether slavery was economically profitable, has not concluded in agreement. Historians have argued over the relative profitability of slavery and the economic factors which must be analysed in order to prove that profitability. It is generally agreed that cotton production propelled the economic growth of the southern United States, which simultaneously spurred the growth of capitalism within the United States. 1 But the relative degree of profit the slaveholders themselves gained through the process is questioned. We will write a custom essay sample on To what extent was salvery a harsh but profitable institution or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Moreover, the severity of slavery itself, within cotton plantations during the 1700s and 1800s, is an issue where historians have equally not been harmonic. The harshness of the institution is the specific issue whereby historians have debated whether blacks were better off as slaves than freemen. Simply put, the relative profitability of slavery and the harshness of it are intertwined. Featured within profitability is analysis of who profited from the institution of slavery and what their profit was. Slavery developed for plantation holders to be a profitable tool in the production of cotton, involving the planting, tilling, harvesting, in short, getting the crop to market. As an institution within agriculture, specifically cotton production, slavery became as profitable as it was because of the particular time and place wherein it occurred: cotton plantations in the southern United States during the cotton boom. Slavery would not have been a profitable activity under other circumstances, and minus the lucrative potential of owning slaves, the practise of slaveholding could only be explained as a ruthless, indefensible act of tyranny.