USA HISTORY

LIFE IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA 1807 1861

SLAVERY IN AMERICA COTTON SLAVE TRADE AND THE SOUTHERN RESPONSE

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Which became important cash crops to export from the Americas, contributing to the demand for slave labor?
A
potatoes, corn, and wheat
B
tobacco, sugar cane, and cotton
C
manufactured goods, such as weapons, tools, and furniture
D
apples, grapes, and salmon
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -The most lucrative cash crops to emerge from the Americas in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were sugar, tobacco, and rice. Cotton agriculture did not become a major feature of the U.S. southern economy until the early nineteenth century.

Detailed explanation-2: -The market success of plantation cash crops such as sugar, tobacco, rice, indigo, and cotton greatly increased labor demands and solidified economic reliance on slavery.

Detailed explanation-3: -Slavery was so profitable, it sprouted more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River valley than anywhere in the nation. With cash crops of tobacco, cotton and sugar cane, America’s southern states became the economic engine of the burgeoning nation.

Detailed explanation-4: -On the eve of the Civil War, cotton prices were at an all-time high. The Confederate leaders were confident that the importance of cotton on the world market, particularly in England and France, would provide the South with the diplomatic and military assistance they needed for victory.

Detailed explanation-5: -Prominent crops included cotton, rubber, sugar cane, tobacco, figs, rice, kapok, sisal, and species in the genus Indigofera, used to produce indigo dye. The longer a crop’s harvest period, the more efficient plantations become.

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