Significance of Slavery in Class Formation During Economic Development Before the Great Depression Essay

Significance of Slavery in Class Formation During Economic Development Before the Great Depression Essay

Significance of Slavery in Class Formation During Economic Development Before the Great Depression Essay

The formation of socioeconomic classes in the United States before the Great Depression remain a critical part of this nation’s history because of the different political and economic processes that occurred and advanced by both the federal government and the state governments in the North and South. The American social class as it is known today emanated from a host of political and economic processes that impacted both the freemen and the slaves in different ways, among them the institution of slavery (Felgar, 2018). The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how slavery played a critical part in class formation in the period of economic development leading to the Great Depression.

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Part I: Class and the Development of the US Economy in the 19th Century

 The American class that exists today arose from a combination of political and economic processes that affected both the freemen and slaves. According to Thompson in “Preface

To The Making of the English Working Class,” the concept of class did not emerge as sunrise but was created based on the economic and political conditions. Accordingly, the working class entailed individuals at the lower end who toiled in different areas of economic productivity, from weavers, artisans and tailors as well as skilled and non-skilled individuals who worked for either low wages or none at all like the slaves and whites who served as servitudes.

A core aspect of this period was the institution of slavery and its leveraging to improve the economic status of largely white Americans, especially in the South where it was not only institutionalized but also a key part of the social and political systems (Du Bois, 2001). The institution of slavery as the basis of capitalism and creation of social classes among white Americans and discrimination of African Americans was both a political and economic processes that influenced American class. In his book, Seth Rockman recounts the living conditions of the slaved families and whites in early Baltimore, Maryland. The working class, especially families comprising of freedmen trying to work to buy the freedom of one of their members from slavery, is castigated and chastised by the whites who created a system that perpetuated slavery. Therefore, the social class describes the historical condition at the time when blacks, either freed or not, worked for their masters to earn low wages or buy freedom for their kinsmen. Rockman represents the experiences of African-Americans who had to dedicate much of what they earned to buying freedom and this pushed them to remain the working class as the others enjoyed the privileged position of the dominating class.

Many believe that the US economy developed in the 19 century because of slavery and market revolution. As posited by Wight (2022) and “The Happiest Laboring Class in the World” which captures the debate of two Virginia slaveholders on the ways to manage slaves, slaves were used as economic leverage to help sustain the Southern cotton plantations to meet cotton demands from factories in the north. The two slaveholders debate the benefits of slaves and how the phenomenon contributed to their sustainable wealth accumulation. A core of leveraging slavery was that the slave South did not promote immigration and had limited investment in transportation infrastructure and failed in educating the majority of its population. These events aimed at using slavery to improve the economic development of the south through plantation farming for cotton.

Market Revolution remains one of the most designing economic processes that shaped American class and its economy. The early years in the 19th century demonstrate the immense and uncontrollable commercial ambition among Americans as expressed in one of the Baltimore newspaper in 1815 called an “almost universal ambition to get forward” that reshaped the country. The market revolution occurred through many landmark infrastructural projects in technology, steam power that moved the railroad and steamboats. These innovative technologies powered the American industry. Commercial agriculture through increased growth of cash crops and construction of vast factories and cities in the North as well as a booming textile industry and the provision of labor to the cotton farming sector accelerated the transformation. The revolution led to economic growth and a rise in personal wealth as well as a rising lower class of workers who did not own property American (Yawp (n.d b) Millions labored for low wages leading to their entrapment in vicious poverty circle. The implication is that market revolution propelled the nation in new direction based on class where free labor and slavery on one hand entailed lower class with high levels of inequality between the “haves and have nots.”

Part II: Slaves as Part of the American Economy & Transition to Wage Labor

The institution of slavery remains at the core of the American economy as depicted by writings from Wright (2022) and “The Happiest Laboring Class in the World” which captures the debate of two Virginia slaveholders on the ways to manage slaves. The implication is that slavery was at the center of the development and existence of the American economy where slaveholders considered the most effective way to grow wealth and maintain their wealth since it offered great economic benefits, especially the growth of capitalism for white Americans.

Emancipation and reconstruction had significant effects on the institution of slavery and the transition to wage labor. Emancipated African Americans, formerly slaves, gained the chance to own property and contribute to the economic development of the American nation. The reconstruction led to restructuring of society as individuals who were formerly slaves gained freedom to engage in freed labor and even own land. They had new link to the land they had worked on and the individuals that they had worked for many years to grow their wealth. However, regressive and oppressive laws like Jim Crow laws hindered their effective participation as the south moved to entrench systematic discrimination and racial segregation.

The transition to wage labor for former slaves as demonstrated by the article “Freedman discuss post-emancipation life with General Sherman 1865” meant that Africans could be allowed to cultivate land and have freedom to work for anyone who they deemed protected their interests. Former slaves advanced that working in a freed atmosphere based on better wages and without any discrimination would help them promote and help the American government.  The discussion also shows that freed labor made more sense than slavery as individuals had a better way of addressing any challenges arising from their transition as emancipated people with increased autonomy.

Conclusion

The institution of slavery had significant effects on the economic development of the United States in the 19th and early 20th century, especially in events leading to the Great Depression. The paper shows that slavery was at the core of the development of the American class as it exists today as slaves generated immense economic benefits to their owner on the plantations, especially in the south. The implication is that the American class owes its formation to slavery and the labor movement system that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th century.

References

American Yawp (n.d.). The Market Revolution Reader.

The Market Revolution Reader

American Yawp (n.d. b). Harriet H. Robinson Remembers a Mill Workers’ Strike, 1836.

Harriet H. Robinson Remembers a Mill Workers’ Strike, 1836

American Yawp (n.d c). Freedmen discuss post-emancipation life with General Sherman, 1865.

Freedmen discuss post-emancipation life with General Sherman, 1865

Du Bois, W. B. (2001). Black reconstruction in America, 1860-1880. Racism Essential

            Readings, 27-34.

Felgar, R. (2014). American Slavery: A Historical Exploration of Literature: A Historical

            Exploration of Literature. ABC-CLIO.

Foner, E. (2007). Nothing but freedom: Emancipation and its legacy. LSU Press.

Gutman, H. G. (1978). Work, culture, and society in industrializing America: Essays in

            American working-class and social history. Science and Society, 42(1).

Thompson, E. P. (2016). The making of the English working class. Open Road Media.

Rockman, S. (2009). Scraping by: wage labor, slavery, and survival in early Baltimore. JHU

            Press.

Wright, G. (2022). Slavery and the Rise of the Nineteenth-Century American Economy. Journal

            of Economic Perspectives, 36 (2): 123-48. DOI: 10.1257/jep.36.2.123

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The midterm essay will consist of a 3 to 4-page (double-spaced, Times New Roman 12-point font, 1-inch margins) analytical essay that explains: What political and economic processes shaped American class formation and how was class solidarity forged and frustrated before the Great Depression and New Deal Order?

This essay should rely on the course’s secondary source readings and at least two primary sources we’ve discussed in class. Tips for the essay: 1. Think carefully about how each week’s readings attempt to analyze distinct kinds of labor, their economic and ideological contexts, and how all those things changed over time. 2. Consider how the authors we have read often either disagree with one another or offer differing interpretations of the past. Incorporate those agreements or disagreements into your analysis of work and labor politics in the pre-New Deal decades.

Secondary Source Reading:
• W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction, Ch. 1 and 4.
• Seth Rockman, “The Hard Work of Being Poor,” in Scraping By.
• Herbert Gutman, “Work, Culture, and Society in Industrializing America”
• K-Sue Park, “Race, Innovation, and Financial Growth”
• The American Yawp, “The Market Revolution”
• Gavin Wright, “Slavery and the Rise of the Nineteenth Century American Economy”
• Barbara Fields, “Slavery, Race, and Ideology in American History”

Primary
• “The Happiest Laboring Class in the World”: Two Virginia Slaveholders Debate Methods of Slave Management, 1837.
• “Freedmen discuss post-emancipation life with General Sherman,” 1865
Harriet H. Robinson Remembers a Mill Workers’ Strike, 1836
• Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIX
• Alexander Hamilton, Report on Manufacturers (1791), Chapter 4