Ali Arvizu

ECON 1740 - 043

Reflection

King Cotton and Slavery Helped Build a World-Wide Economy
As I think about the use of slavery in our history, I cant help to think how awful it is that
an industry like that was once acceptable in our society. So many people overworked,
undervalued, and treated incredibly inhumanely; yet it was the social norm and it was a way of
producing goods and services in large amounts. Weve certainly come a long way, but I do feel
as though our world wide economy all started with slavery in a lot of ways. Everything evolves
from something, and I do feel as though slavery helped to build a world-wide economy.
Its amazing that most European colonial economies in the Americas from the 16th
through the 19th century were dependent on enslaved African labor for their survival. If they
didnt have slavery, what would have happened? Keep in mind the Civil War was able to end
slavery, and we turned out just fine. We found other ways to do things that didnt involve using
another persons body and soul as a property and working machine. Even though means of
production was of high importance and high value, its also interesting to think and reflect upon
the value of a slave.
Ironically, the profits made from the sale of many goods in Europe, as well as the trade
in Africa, were used to purchase more slaves. The faster and more a slave could work, give, and
the stronger he/she was, the more valuable they were; just as any machine. Also, not only were
slaves valuable in America, but the practice was valuable all over the world. Everyone practiced
it, which is something I didnt know before until I took this class.
Shockingly, more than half of the enslaved African captives were employed on sugar
plantations in America. Sugar developed into the leading slave-produced commodity in the
Americas and Brazil dominated the production of sugarcane. Other places that could produce it
naturally, such as Haiti and Louisiana also participated in this practice. During the colonial
period in the United States, tobacco became the dominant slave-produced commodity until the
Cotton Gin came along in 1793.
Its crazy to think how much the world demanded cotton in the past and how much we
still demand it today. Cotton was one of the worlds first luxury commodities, after sugar and
tobacco, and was also the commodity whose production most dramatically turned millions of
black human beings in the United States themselves into commodities. They each worked hand
in hand to produce one of the most booming and inextricably intertwined systems to have ever
walked the planet. Everyone was giving and taking from each other, which led to a world wide
economy. At the time, we thought we couldnt do it any other way, but Im so glad we found
another avenue and abolished slavery altogether.