The American South had a distinct social system. The region had its own economy, class structure, and a system of racial differences that made it unique from the rest of the nation. Historians, such as James Henretta, argue that capitalism was the root of all evil in the American South. Max Weber defined American capitalism as a greed for gain and acquisition by force.
Whether directly in war or in the form of exploitation of subjects, this type of lifestyle within a growing nation could not work with the gentry class which was moving into the region unless there were people to do the work on the farms for them. At first, there were indentured servants, but this system of work only worked for a limited time as these servants would work their time of servitude and then leave on their own. The American farmer in the South needed more control on their workers and needed to know that they (the workers) weren’t going to just leave and start up their own farm for themselves. Thus, the manipulation of slave labor became the answer for capitalism, and from the use of black slave labor, tension began to rise between the slaves brought from Africa and the landholders of the South.
Tension between slaves and landowners has been strong in the South for many years. One might say that the cause of it is the way in which Black slaves on plantations and farms were treated. The founders of the Carolina colonies were not only interested in using slaves to solve their labor problems of having too much work and not enough workers, but they also had a significant material interest. The use of slave labor was a coerced, cash-crop system of labor from which slavery became an economic necessity because for a person who owned land, they needed workers, and these workers were predominantly Negro slaves brought in and sold from Africa. To southern colonists, slavery was first an economic institution solely for the purpose of solving an economic problem. That problem was that work cost too much money, so the colonists implemented forced labor for economic gain. Slavery provided the basis for a special Southern economic and social life that continued until the Civil War.
The special economic life that the people of the South lived was one of greed for expansion and gain. Capitalism was at its best, and the Southern colonies were very good at it. Lewis C. Gray defined the southern plantation as a capitalistic type of agricultural organization in which a considerable number of unfree laborers were employed under a unified direction and control in the production of a staple crop. The plantations were mostly one crop oriented, focusing on cotton or tobacco, which led to cash crops rather than supplying for the colonies themselves. The plantation gentry, or Masters as they were called by the slaves, never thought of the big picture involving cash crops; they only thought of their own well-being and how much money they were going to make, whether physical force was used or not.
Slavery and the plantation system led to agricultural methods that depleted soils. The slavery system forced the South to exploit more slave labor as a means of better production rather than the realization of worn-out lands. Such a labor system aggravated and caused very deep problems between the Master and his slaves. Slavery established the basis of the planter’s position and power. It measured his affluence, marked his status, and supplied leisure for social graces and aristocratic duties. The road of power in the South lay through the plantation, and the Master would see to it that his or her plantation be the best. Great planters held enormous power in the southern colonies. They spent much of their free time in leisure, educational pursuits, and participation in public life. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both within this group of people.
Most planters were also active entrepreneurs who engaged in quick-profit situations to increase their earnings on top of the profits made from their slaves’ forced labor on the plantations. Although slavery was their primary source of income, these schemes led planters to believe that holding slaves was even more profitable. As a result, the number of slaves working on plantations increased, providing greater control over labor and greater profitability for planters and farmers. Labor control became essential for the survival of any plantation in the South. Southern masters had many slaves who were expected to do an enormous amount of work for the master’s gain.
Consequently, a capitalist lifestyle had absorbed and encouraged slavery. The resultant fortunes that Planters and Farmers had flowed into their pockets were because of slavery and slave-holding. A small commercial bourgeoisie was created from slavery, and the ideology of capitalism was the root of construction. Perhaps if it weren’t for capitalism and the expansion by British gentry, slavery caused by capitalism would never have happened.
