Although we hear of the Revolutionary War and think it was revolutionary, however, the revolution was what occurred after. The period from 1820-1855 is seen as revolutionary in American history due to alterations and expansion in the market economy, cotton industry, and religion. As we zoom in and examine documents about these categories, we can truly see the revolutionary changes that have been stamped into history which made America what it is today. In the 19th century, the market economy in the United States expanded swiftly due to industrialization, immigration, territorial expansion, innovations and advancements that made work more efficient and quicker. With innovations like steam power, transportation of steamboats and railroads made the economy rise creating the new national transportation network. With improvements such as the National Road, it made it easier for settlers to move West expanding the Country. In the document, “James Madison Asks Congress to Support Internal Improvements, 1815”, we can analyze the point James Madison is making for the welfare of the Country. He is supporting a system consisting of three main enforcement including tariffs to protect the American industry, a national bank to foster commerce, and internal improvements like canals, roads, and national seminaries saying, “Among the means of advancing the public interest”, “recalling the attention of Congress to the great importance of establishing throughout our country roads and canals which can best be executed under the national authority.” He reinforces his argument of internal improvements and tariffs by saying that it is a security issue for the Country to have these improvements and is imperative to protect it as he states, “whether to prevent or repel danger, we ought not to be unprepared for it... This consideration will sufficiently recommend to Congress a liberal provision for the immediate extension and gradual completion of the works of defense.” Building a “great fund of national prosperity and independence” can lead the United States to not be dependent on supplies from foreign countries for running their factory system and market economy. Madison’s revolutionary idea of America gaining good fortune through these improvements and tariffs, “In selecting the branches more especially entitled to the public patronage a preference is claimed by such as will relieve the United States from a dependence on foreign supplies ever subject to casual failures, for articles necessary for the public defense or connected with the primary wants of individuals,” changed the way the factory system functioned. This created explosive economic growth and new personal wealth for the United States. They gained an overall strength for the nation through government spending on infrastructure and designing a new way for production.
We can also view how revolutionary the market economy and industrialization were by examining the cotton industry, which was impacted significantly in this period. With the new industrial innovations, the cotton industry flourished and was mainly imported from slave plantations. Cotton arrived at the best time suited for success. With the invention of the Cotton Gin and the emergence of steam power, cotton became the main commodity. Cotton and slavery were together hand-in-hand. Cotton depended on slaves, and slaves somewhat depended on cotton. Cotton was labor intensive and a vast business in the South thus requiring a large number of laborers and slaves to keep up the production. However, the cotton revolution was a stressful time of capitalism and devastating depressions called “panics”. Many landowners expanded and bought new land, and purchased slaves which got them in extreme debt. After the American Revolution, slavery was almost everywhere in the United States even in the North. The population of slaves began to increase tremendously when the cotton boom took hold in the mid-1830s. The South relied on slave laborers because they were the foundation of their economy. Without these slaves, the cotton economy would collapse.
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Slave Markets were a place where slaves were bought and sold. It was a harsh system where families were destroyed and separated and forced to migrate from one place to another and even one master to another. Some also tore apart free black families and kidnapped them into slavery. This was the exact story of Soloman Northup, a free black man in New York who was forcefully kidnapped into slavery for twelve years. In his book “ 12 Years a Slave,” he writes about the experiences he lived and describes the unpleasant and raw truths of slavery. In the document, “Solomon Northup Describes a Slave Market, 1841,” Northup simply describes what he saw and experienced as he comprehended the horrors of the slave market. Northup describes their day from the time they got up to when they got ready and went into the rooms to be examined by other slave owners, “In the first place we were required to wash thoroughly, The men were arranged on one side of the room, the women on the other. The tallest was placed at the head of the row, then the next tallest, and so on in the order of their respective heights.” He includes sarcasm to describe how inhumanely the slaves were examined and treated as if they were not human beings and just a piece of property that they had the right to touch and order what to do. He says they made them “hold up our heads, walk briskly back and forth, feel of our hands and arms and bodies.” He adds a simile to show the inhumanity in their treatment towards the slaves by making them “open our mouths and show our teeth, precisely as a jockey examines a horse which he is about to barter for or purchase.” This simile shows us to what point slavery had gotten to.
To a point where it made the slaves themselves feel less human and not worth anything. In Northup’s book, we see that Platt describes his master Ford as a “noble, candid, Christian man,” however he was forced to sell Platt due to some financial setbacks. We can see here that although they were a kind master he gave Northup up because he valued and cared more about the money. Simply because at the end of the day it's all a business. In his book and document, he mentions Eliza, a fellow black captive and a friend of Northup, who was also affected by the market economy. She was sadly separated from her children, with nothing she could do but beg and do whatever she could to keep her family together. Northup states, “She kept on begging and beseeching them, most piteously not to separate the three. Over and over again she told them how she loved her boy. A great many times she repeated her former promises – how very faithful and obedient she would be; how hard she would labor day and night, to the last moment of her life, if he would only buy them all together. But it was of no avail; the man could not afford it,” this helps us the unpleasant and horrific side of the market and cotton economy. Their need for more slave workers and more cotton production caused the slave system to be harsher and America's southern states became the economic engine of the burgeoning nation. Their fuel of choice? Human slavery.
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