Economic Movement in the United States

The Economic Movement and the Essentials in the Slavery Struggle

In the book “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870” (1), W. E. B. Du Bois explained the following: Economic measures against the trade were those which from the beginning had the best chance of success, but which were least tried. They included tariff measures; efforts to encourage the immigration of free laborers and the emigration of the slaves; measures for changing the character of Southern industry; and, finally, plans to restore the economic balance which slavery destroyed, by raising the condition of the slave to that of complete freedom and responsibility. Like the political efforts, these rested in 196part on a moral basis; and, as legal enactments, they were also themselves often political measures. They differed, however, from purely moral and political efforts, in having as a main motive the economic gain which a substitution of free for slave labor promised.

The simplest form of such efforts was the revenue duty on slaves that existed in all the colonies. This developed into the prohibitive tariff, and into measures encouraging immigration or industrial improvements. The colonization movement was another form of these efforts; it was inadequately conceived, and not altogether sincere, but it had a sound, although in this case impracticable, economic basis. The one great measure which finally stopped the slave-trade forever was, naturally, the abolition of slavery, i.e., the giving to the Negro the right to sell his labor at a price consistent with his own welfare. The abolition of slavery itself, while due in part to direct moral appeal and political sagacity, was largely the result of the economic collapse of the large-farming slave system.

Resources

Notes and References

1. W. E. B. Du Bois, “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870” (1893), Longmans, Green and Co., London, New York, Bombay and Calcuta.

See Also

Further Reading

• Thomas Hart Benton. Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856. 16 vols. Washington, 1857–61.
• Friedrich Kapp. Die Sklavenfrage in den Vereinigten Staaten. Göttingen and New York, 1854.
• Andrew H. Foote. The African Squadron: Ashburton Treaty; Consular Sea Letters. Philadelphia, 1855.
• Selections from the Revised Statutes: Containing all the Laws relating to Slaves, etc. New York, 1830.
• Confederate States of America. By Authority of Congress: The Statutes at Large of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, from the Institution of the Government, Feb. 8, 1861, to its Termination, Feb. 18, 1862, Inclusive, etc. (Contains provisional and permanent constitutions.) Edited by James M. Matthews. Richmond, 1864.
• George H. Moore. Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts. New York, 1866.
• Benjamin Godwin. Lectures on Slavery. From the London edition, with additions. Edited by W.S. Andrews. Boston, 1836.
• Virginia State Convention. Proceedings and Debates, 1829–30. Richmond, 1830.