Slavery Took Over the 19th Century

One of the causes of the Civil War was the increase in slavery in American Society.  Slavery was huge in the 19th century because the people thought it was necessary in order to have a successful economy.  Although some people opposed slavery, they still used it because they didn't know any other way to run the economy.  

Slavery became entrenched in American society by the early 19th century.  One reason it became so entrenched was because of its mention in the Founders' Constitution.  Article 1 stated, "The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person."  This still promotes slavery and legalizes it as long as each enslaved person is taxed at such a price that doesn't exceed ten dollars.  People then began to trade slaves and use them more and more.  Statistics show that the amount of slaves in America increased from 69,000 in 1790, to 3,954,000 on the eve of the civil war.  That shows how big of an increase in slavery there was over time.  Another thing that caused slavery to become entrenched in American society was the invention of the cotton gin.  Cotton was not even considered as a commercial crop in 1790. By 1860, cotton had increased across the South. With the increase in cotton being planted, more and more labor was needed, so Southern planters began transporting large numbers of African-American slaves westward into the new cotton lands, where the planters used their social, political, and economic power to keep slavery legal. This resulted in a sharp demarcation between the Southern states.  The slave labor helped produce large amounts of economically valuable cotton.  Meanwhile, the rest of the nation, where the economy was more diversified and slave labor had been outlawed.  The website Mappinghistory     has a virtual tutorial showing the spread of slavery and cotton from 1790-1860.  There were many things that caused slavery to become entrenched in American society by the early 19th century.

A system of slavery based on race affects human dignity because it shows that the people within the system see people who look different or have different backgrounds as inferiors.  This shows that these people have no empathy and marginalize people based on their skin color.  It also means that they don't have good morals especially if they allow people to be treated so poorly because they are "different."  Systems like these ignore many human characteristics.  All humans are equal no matter what skin color or beliefs they have.  Just because someone appears different on the outside it doesn't mean that they aren't equal to everyone else and it certainly doesn't mean that they should be enslaved.  Overall, when a society uses a system of slavery based on race it affects human dignity because it shows that the people don't have empathy or good morals.  Systems like these tend to ignore human characteristics such as the fact that everyone is equal and should be treated equally.  Also, they tend to ignore that people have rights and should not be treated like animals.    

In conclusion, slavery became entrenched in the 19th century because of the mention of it in the Founder' Constitution and the invention of the cotton gin.  When societies use systems of slavery, it shows that the people don't really have a dignity and that they don't have empathy or great morals.  Lastly, these systems tend to ignore characteristics of humanity such as the fact that everyone is equal and that no one should be treated differently.