Tariffs

Noelle Roberts

Professor Young

The New Jim Crow

2/9/17

Tariffs

 In December of 1860 South Carolina left the Union and ten other states followed to create the Confederate States of America. This occurred because of Tariffs. A tariff is a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports. The South did not want to pay tariffs and the North though this was unacceptable. This lead to the Civil War which split the nation and destroyed cities all over the world. Over 600,000 people died and many more were severely wounded. The first African slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 and their main purpose was to work in the tobacco fields.

The North had outlawed slavery after the American Revolution because they did not think it was making a profit anymore. They focused on transportation systems that connected regions which would improve trade. The types of transportation they focused on were boats through the Erie Canal and building Railroads as long as 30,000 miles long. This cut time from a couple of months to a couple of weeks which allowed trade to happen faster. The North was going through the Industrial phase and were producing sewing machines, farm machinery, clothing, and much more. This was called the American system of manufacturing. This created jobs and immigrants came to work in these factories. Banks were made to finance these industries and help with trade.

            In the South, agriculture was the main source for jobs and wealth. The rich soil helped with the production of rice, tobacco, and cotton. There were also cash crops grown for

sale. Majority of whites in the south were poor farmers but big plantation owners who

owned a lot of slaves dominated economically, socially, and politically. Raw cotton was

always expensive because it was very hard to harvest. In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the

cotton gin. This made it so that a slave could clean more than 50 pounds of cotton a day.

This made the want for it increase and it was no longer a luxury item, but the cheapest

fabric because the slaves could produce it faster. The South was the world’s biggest

supplier. They used enslaved Africans as their forced labor source because it was the

cheapest form of work.

             Even though some slave owners treated their slaves “well” slavery was brutal, deadly, and disgusting. Children were dressed in coarse linen clothing and only received two shirts a year. If those shirts did not last them throughout the year they would not receive anymore clothing, they would have to be shirtless or naked no matter the weather. Masters and overseers beat slaves for no reason thinking that this was the only way they could be controlled. There were free slaves, whether they ran away, were bought out by relatives, or freed because of the owner’s guilty conscience. They were brick layers, and carpenters, and they dominated in these fields. They made a life for themselves and resisted slavery any way they could by breaking tools, burning down barns and houses, running away to the North, or Indian tribes on the frontier, poison their masters, and revolted. When a group would revolt and lost, whites would decapitate them and post them on poles for others to see so that they could instill fear into anyone who even thought about going against them.

            William Lloyd Garrison started the New England Anti-slavery society in 1832. He wanted to end slavery and his newspaper the liberated became one of the most popular papers out. He said that nothing justifies slavery. Angry crowds almost lynched him in Boston burned down the new abolitionist hall in Philly and murdered many. The abolitionist movement grew in the North and worked with whites to create the underground railroad. Escaped slaves write autobiographies to inform people and great leaders like Harriet Tubman went back and forth from the South to the North to help slaves to the North.

            In school I was not taught all of these facts, but thanks to my mother, my aunts, and my grandmother I knew a lot of the facts presented in these videos. They made sure that I learned about the truth of my history and what really happened because they don’t put the full truth in textbooks.