Slavery, Settlement, and Empire - Essay Example

However, the main contention is that the rise in the demand for sugar and cotton, and the emergence of the commercial textile industry are the key features that drove the world to increase its demand for slaves, which thus saw slavery become one of the most brutal areas ever.

As cited previously, the main reason why the slavery levels increased and the demand for slaves increased marginally was due to the overall increase and spring up of the textile industries, both from the Englishmen and the rich people from the northern states. The emergence of the textile industry increased the demand for cotton greatly, which thus saw the majority of the farmers venture into large-scale cotton planting to meet the rising demand (Hammond 175). This thus needed quick and cheap labor. The main source of this labor was Africa and this being the case, Europeans who had begun colonizing Africa, and the various explorers who visited the continent were able to start taking slaves from Africa and shipping them to the United States and other countries such as Brazil.

However, it is crucial to consider that the increase in demand for cotton, which surged from the rise of the textile industry, did not demand nor call for slavery to increase. Additionally, even prior to the establishment of these factories, the demand for slaves was still high all over the world. However, in the United States, the demand for slaves increased with the growth of the industrial revolution which saw large-scale textile industries emerge. The main reason why slavery grew was the fact that in the federal government, created after the freedom of the American nation as an independent set of states, most of the representatives were large-scale farm owners from the south (Hammond 176). As such, in the presence or the absence of the textile industry, slaves would still be shipped to the country to assist with household chores and the like. Regardless, the growth of these industries prompted the establishment of the slave trade as a lucrative business venture.

The plantation system, which mainly became competitive, led to the increase in violence subjected among slaves. The increase in violence subjected on the slaves was mainly a strategy that had been developed by plantation farmers to ensure that the cotton picked was more than enough and this thus led to the increase in immorality and inhumanity among the southern states. Additionally, the rise in the prices of slaves equally motivated the violence subjected upon them, since the white men understood that they were their property and after being sold for such a high price, the slaves were expected to be equally productive which thus stimulated the use of violence as a way to improve productivity, which was later a power used by the southerners for their pleasure or to exert power.