Why was slave labor still used in the South in the mid 1800s?
Slaves were used to pick cotton.Southern whites frequently relied upon the idea of paternalism—the premise that white slaveholders acted in the best interests of slaves, taking responsibility for their care, feeding, discipline, and even their Christian morality—to justify the existence of slavery.

Answer :

Defenders of slavery maintained that the South, where reliance on slave labor was the core of their economy, would have suffered gravely and fatally from the abrupt end to the slave economy. The cotton industry would be destroyed. The fields would be used to dry the tobacco crop.

  • Slavery developed in the southern colonies on a much larger scale than in the northern colonies because the climate and soil of the South were suitable for the cultivation of commercial (plantation) crops like tobacco, rice, and indigo; the latter's labor needs were primarily met by the use of European immigrants.
  • Cotton became the Deep South's cash crop after the cotton gin was created, which fueled a rise in the need for enslaved people from the Upper South to work the land.
  • Deeply ingrained racism obscured apparent class lines as the gap between wealthy white plantation owners and impoverished white people grew in the Deep South.
  • Since the majority of cotton was exported, the slave economy of the South had an international economic impact and linked the United States to the world market.

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