Slavery - Crash Course US History #13

Hi, I'm John Green, this is Crash Course U.S. History, and today, we're going to talk about slavery, which is not funny.

Yeah, so we put a lei on the eagle to try and cheer you up, but let's face it, this is going to be depressing.

With slavery, every time you think, like, "Aw, it couldn't have been that bad," it turns out to have been much worse.

Mr. Green, Mr. Green! But what about –

Yeah, Me from the Past, I'm going to stop you right there, because you're going to embarrass yourself. Slavery was hugely important to America.

I mean, it led to a civil war and it also lasted what, at least in U.S. history, counts as a long-ass time, from 1619 to 1865.

And yes, I know there's a 1200-year-old church in your neighborhood in Denmark, but we're not talking about Denmark!

But slavery is most important because we still struggle with its legacy.

So, yes, today's episode will probably not be funny, but it will be important.

[Theme Music]

So the slave-based economy in the South is sometimes characterized as having been separate from the Market Revolution, but that's not really the case.

Without southern cotton, the North wouldn't have been able to industrialize, at least not as quickly, because cotton textiles were one of the first industrially products.

And the most important commodity in world trade by the nineteenth century, and 3/4 of the world's cotton came from the American South.

And speaking of cotton, why has no one mentioned to me that my collar has been half popped this entire episode, like I'm trying to recreate the Flying Nun's hat.

And although there were increasingly fewer slaves in the North as northern states outlawed slavery, cotton shipments overseas made northern merchants rich.

Northern bankers financed the purchase of land for plantations.

Northern insurance companies insured slaves who were, after all, considered property, and very valuable property.

And in addition to turning cotton into cloth for sale overseas, northern manufacturers sold cloth back to the South, where it was used to clothe the very slaves who had cultivated it.

But certainly the most prominent effects of the slave-based economy were seen in the South.

The profitability of slaved-based agriculture, especially King Cotton, meant that the South would remain largely agricultural and rural.

Slave states were home to a few cities, like St. Louis and Baltimore, but with the exception of New Orleans,

almost all southern urbanization took place in the upper South, further away from the large cotton plantations.

And slave-based agriculture was so profitable that it siphoned money away from other economic endeavors.

Like, there was very little industry in the South.

It produced only 10% of the nation's manufactured goods.

And, as most of the capital was being plowed into the purchase of slaves, there was very little room for technological innovation, like, for instance, railroads.

This lack of industry and railroads would eventually make the South suck at the Civil War, thankfully.

In short, slavery dominated the South, shaping it both economically and culturally, and slavery wasn't a minor aspect of American society.

By 1860, there were four million slaves in the U.S., and in the South, they made up one third of the total population.

Although in the popular imagination, most plantations were these sprawling affairs with hundreds of slaves,

in reality, the majority of slaveholders owned five or fewer slaves.

And, of course, most white people in the South owned no slaves at all, though, if they could afford to, they would sometimes rent slaves to help with their work.

These were the so-called yeoman farmers who lived self-sufficiently, raised their own food, and purchased very little in the Market Economy.

They worked the poorest land and, as a result, were mostly pretty poor themselves.

But even they largely supported slavery, partly, perhaps, for aspirational reasons, and partly because the racism inherent to the system gave even the poorest whites legal and social status.