Slave+Trade+to+Civil+War

= The Quest __for Racial Equality for African Americans From the Slave Trade - Civil War__ //By: Susan//=

The whole aspect of the slave trade was to make profits and to pay certain debts. Most slaves that were sold in Africa had been prisoners of war. Even sometimes people would enslave their own selves to get the chance to pay back debts and many other things they owed. Many African rulers traded their people for goods like guns, gunpowder, fabrics, iron bars, tobacco, liquor, gold, and cowrie shells also known as money. [|King Agaja] of Benin once said he would trade 1000 slaves for only one good.
 * __The Start of the Slave Trade__**

Cotton became one of the most major crops during the slave trade. It's plantations covered around 2000 to 3000 acres. This caused planters to want many more slave laborers. Between 1800 and 1860 slave produced cotton had colonized lands of Missisippi. The [|Cotton Gin] which was invented in 1793 had given slavery a new life. This caused the slave economy to shift from the upper south to the lower south. Soon after that the enslaved African population increased in the lower south and west. In 1850 about 1.8 million out of 2.5 million Africans who had been enslaved in the United States had started to work on cotton plantations. While the cotton was expanding in the southern region, different banks and houses had been working to supply the loan capital and also the investment capital so they could buy more land and more slaves.
 * __Cotton Plantations__**



Around 1820 slavery was most seen in the tobacco-growing places like Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky. Some was also found around the coasts of South Carolina and the Northern part of Georgia. Then in 1850 it all quickly spread in the low south like Alabama, Missisippi, Louisiana, Texas, and the rest of Georgia. Tobacco and rice remained profitable crops throughout the years but as time went by, more and more acres came to be used by other crops like wheat, corn, rye, and oats.
 * __Tobacco and Rice__**

Many farmers made money by hiring enslaved Africans. The money that was being spent on clothes, housing, and feeding the slaves cost less than the amount the slaves produced. In the first half of the nineteenth century profit had began to increase. This included the prices of valueble crops going up. The cost for purchasing slaves stayed the same though. Only the highest prices for slaves were for men in their late twenties. This made the whole situation even more profitable. Many planters depended on [|slave labor] to continue producing crops which soon later led to their profits increasing. In order to increase profits many colonies had to deal with direct trade from Africa.
 * __Making Profits__**

1. Slavery in British America http://cghs.dadeschools.net/slavery/british_america/colonial_era.htm

2. CliffsNotes (the fastest way to learn!)http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/Slavery-the-Economy-and-Society.topicArticleId-25073,articleId-25050.html

3.National Geographic News (mainly on page 2)http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0131_030203_jubilee2_2.html

4.Newman, Shirlee P.. __The African Slave Trade__. Canada: