Suzanna Melendez<\/p>\n

Supplementary Reading<\/p>\n

History 571<\/p>\n

Dr. Shrout<\/p>\n

9\/13\/2016<\/p>\n

Slavery\u2019s Capitalism: A New History of American Development<\/p>\n

Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman\u2019s framework of Slavery\u2019s Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development<\/em> constitutes a variety of disciplines such as finance, accounting, management and technology as a means to comprehend America\u2019s economic development as slavery capitalism. (Beckert & Rockman 1)\u00a0 During the years of late eighteenth and early twentieth century the legal regime of slave labor in the U.S. generated economic growth and transformed Western societies. Most important of all, what differentiates the editor\u2019s scholarship were the system of methods embedded in the nation\u2019s economy. Enslavers and businessmen\u2019s wanted to maintain a financial system that relied heavily on slave labor. The editors provided examples such as management and accounting strategies which transformed slave plantations into feudal estates. As a result, the connection between business and slavery generated a vigorous and violent system that transformed human beings into commodities and collateral. Therefore, technology, supposedly \u201cfree\u201d financial markets, and networks of interest encompassed slavery to have no boundaries between the North and South, let alone the world<\/p>\n

Scholars have long emphasized that slave-grown cotton was the most valuable cash crop because it generated America\u2019s financial regime. The fact remains, nevertheless, that the most valuable crop in America was slave-grown cotton. The collection of essays clearly showed a correlation between progressive business methods and technology. Indeed, the application of scientific knowledge forced slaves to work harder and longer hours. The cotton gin and the steam boat contributed to the commoditization and capitalization of slave grown cotton. Understanding the connection between slavery, technology, and business was the particular emphasis in Walter Johnson\u2019s, River of Dark Dreams<\/em>. The title of Johnson\u2019s book brilliantly paradoxes slave and business owner\u2019s symbol of the Mississippi River as a romantic and beneficial method of transport for cotton. In reality, the Cotton Kingdom was a dangerous and an exploitative system. In chapter 3, Johnson goes into great detail about the economic benefits of steamboat transportation. \u201cSteam power had emancipate the Mississippi Valley from its reliance on animal energy, allowing a concomitant increase in the radio of cargo to dead weight, and enabling an exponential increase in the volume and velocity of upriver trade.\u201d (Johnson 78) In an effort to profit from the Mississippi Valley, Johnson explained that steamboats were loaded with maximum amount of cotton. In spite of the dangers, Americans relied heavily on steamboats to transport both cotton and slaves.<\/p>\n

The dependence of slave labor created a scientific management system which allowed record keeping to be organized and detailed. In Caitlin Rosenthal\u2019s essay Slavery\u2019s Scientific Management: Masters and Managers <\/em>her research emphasized the importance of tracking information. Masters and mangers then \u201c\u2026 put their data to work, analyzing it to increase the productivity of their operations.\u201d (Beckert & Rockman 69) Sophisticated accounting and bookkeeping techniques were critical in order to keep track of slaves, expenses, and production output. Affleck\u2019s Plantation Record and Account Book<\/em> was an important resource that allowed practically anyone to improve on their accounting practices. (Beckert & Rockman 64) Johnson also provided the reader with the mechanics and importance of Affleck\u2019s book. It was considered one of the bestselling books in the Mississippi Valley. In addition \u201cAffleck\u2019s provided a list of the things to which a commercially minded cotton planter should attend, and provided neatly lined printed pages across which they could be tracked: pounds of cotton by the slave, by the acre, and by the bale; prices gained for the same, less the cost of shipping and marketing; total yield, total expenditure, total profit (or loss).\u201d (Johnson 246) Therefore, the institution of slave labor was a business innovation eager to facilitate the sharing of resources. By sharing and comparing data the premier focus was to maintain slavery in America and spread it throughout the world. In Pekka H\u00e4m\u00e4l\u00e4inen\u2019s book The Comanche Empire <\/em>the Camaches are illustrated as a great economic empire. They organized and strategized \u201c\u2026 multiple opportunities for commerce, gift exchange, pillaging, slave raiding, ransoming, adoption, tribute extracting, and alliance making.\u201d (H\u00e4m\u00e4l\u00e4inen 3)\u00a0 Both slave owners and the Comanche organized to build a commercial network which controlled border and international markets.<\/p>\n

Both Slavery\u2019s Capitalism<\/em> and River of Dark Dreams<\/em> does an amazing job incorporating the global and imperialistic ambitions of the slave holding south. Stephen Chamber\u2019s \u201cNo Country but their counting-houses<\/em>\u201d The U.S.-Cuba-Baltic Circuit, 1809-1812<\/em> went into great detail talking about slavery in Cuba and its impact on American capitalism. In fact, \u201cearly American capitalism depended on reliable reexport markets for Cuban sugar and coffee.\u201d (Beckert & Rockman 197) The U.S.-Cuban networks primary contributed to the North American slave trade. Even after the slave trade had been outlawed, merchants disregarded the ban. The backbone of American capitalism was dependent on Cuban slavery. \u201cAs long as there were slaveholders in the South, of course, imperializing Cuba remained an active possibility, active enough that Abraham Lincoln rejected a last-minute proposal to avoid secession and Civil War\u2026.\u201d (Johnson 365) Nevertheless, Johnson\u2019s narrative reflects Elijah Gould\u2019s Among the Power of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire<\/em>. The U.S. colonies along with the pro-slave advocates in the Mississippi Valley utilized treaties, alliances, and power to gain global recognition. The international rule of laws reflected a civilized society that was worthy of respect. Pro-slavery advocates legislated with such efforts to gain control of Cuba. They feared that if anti-slavery Britain gained control of Cuba the valley-lifestyle and economic success would diminish. Recognizing pro-slavery economic motives and Southern society pinpoints critical suggestion by pro-slavery politicians to reopen the African slave trade in the late 1850s. Johnson highlights that by reopening the slave trade, slaveless whites could own slave and dilute tensions. It was a critical theory to research because the slave holding South was part of the capitalist transatlantic world economy. In comparison to the last essay entitled Why Did Northerners Oppose the Expansion of Slavery<\/em> the main focus centered on the Republican Party\u2019s opposition to the expansion of slavery. Economic factors rather than moral objections to slavery contributed to tension between the North and South. Ultimately, \u201cwith the emancipation in the mid-nineteenth century, the southern economy collapsed. Over time, the northern and southern systems of capitalism began to look more similar.\u201d (Beckert & Rockman 120) In conclusion, it is interesting to acknowledge that political parties opposed slavery despite it being fundamental to America\u2019s nineteenth-century economy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/p>\n

Elija Gould. Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire.<\/em><\/p>\n

Johnson, Walter. 2013. River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom<\/em>. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.<\/p>\n

H\u00e4m\u00e4l\u00e4inen, Pekka. The Comanche Empire<\/em>. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.<\/p>\n

Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman (eds). Slavery\u2019s Capitalism: A New History of Economic Development. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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