Advancement?

By the early nineteenth century, Eli Whitney had invented the cotton gin, though he probably had no idea of the impact his invention would have upon the future of the United States.  His goal was to make the growing of cotton more profitable, and he succeeded – the cotton gin transformed cotton from a small crop to by far the most important crop in the South.  With the increased production of cotton came an increased demand for labour, and southern plantation owners turned to slavery.  Before the invention of the cotton gin, ideas from the French revolution of equality and liberty had spread to the US.  Many slaveholders released their slaves, and there was talk of emancipation.  However, needing more workers to produce more cotton after the invention of the cotton gin, plantation owners bought more slaves to satisfy the demand.  The price of slaves skyrocketed along with the population of slaves in the United States.  By 1860, the price of a field hand had tripled from $500 to $1500.  By then, cotton had taken over the economy of the south.  They were exporting so much product and making so much money – over half of the nation’s exportation profit – that the government didn’t dare upset the system.  They needed the money from the cotton, and all of the farms that grew cotton relied on slave labour.  Click here to see how slavery grew with the production of cotton.

When a system of slavery is based on race, human dignity is pretty much nullified.  People who are slaves often feel stripped of their dignity when they are forcibly taken from their homes and made to work without pay.  Slaveholders and traffickers certainly treat slaves as though they have no dignity, as though they are less than human.  When a system of slavery is based on race, the people who perpetuate the system tend to look down on anyone of that race.  Even after slavery was abolished in the United States, white people still tended to view black people as inferior, especially in the south.  In my opinion, people who own and traffick slaves don't have much in the way of human dignity because they are willing to strip others of their dignity and treat people like they're less than human. 

A system of slavery such as this ignores the basic fact that we are all human.  We all have the same emotions, thoughts, we all crave love and freedom and happiness.  Any system of slavery ignores the fact that people don't enjoy having their dignity taken from them or other people claiming that they own them.  You can't truly own another human being.  That's what makes slavery so horribly wrong in the first place - people are not possessions.

Sources:

http://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/english/US/US18-03.html

http://www.edline.net/files/_AeGg2_/1d5157b4b5d488223745a49013852ec4/Slavery_in_The_Founders_Constitution.pdf

http://www.edline.net/files/_AeGiT_/4eed1cce371caa3c3745a49013852ec4/Unit_4_Activity_4_Cotton_Gin_Reading.pdf