Free States and Slavery

While the South was known for plantations and a slavery based economy, the North was known as being free states with a more industrial economic structure. But, especially during the beginning of the North's industrialization period, textile factories were reliant on cotton; and where did the Cotton come from? The South. Cotton is the crop where the Northern economy and slavery mingled.

While the North is mainly remembered as where the main push for abolition came from, they were not completely disassociated with slavery. Cotton is one of the main crops of the South and one of the main materials that the textile factories in the North relied on. While they may not have viewed this as supporting slavery because this was economic based and not political, it did. They bought cotton from plantations in the South which used slave labor, thus supporting plantation owners and supporting slavery. They also insured slaves in the South, because they were looked upon as an investment in property, again, as financial gain. This directly went against abolition, as it made slaves once again be viewed as property and not as a person. On top of that, to further their support of slavery, Northern companies sold back "cheaper cloth" as clothes for slaves in the South, again, contributing to the slavocracy. We see this again during the Civil War. Despite blockades and the violence between the North and South, the cotton trade was pursued as the northern textile factories still needed cotton to earn money.

So, while in politics the North was mainly anti-slavery and pushed for abolition, their economic history does not have the same consistency against slavery. While eventually, their political effort finally did come through, free states were not as untangled as they may seem from slavery.

Bibliography:
Foner, Eric. “Chapter 11.” Give Me Liberty!: an American History, W.W. Norton & Company, 2017, p. 419.

Leigh, Phil. “Trading With the Enemy.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2012, opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/trading-with-the-enemy/.

Green, John, director. Slavery - Crash Course US History #13. YouTube, John Green , 2 May 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajn9g5Gsv98.