Southern Society and the Defense of Slavery
Lecture no. 33 from the course: A History of the United States, 2nd Edition
Taught by Professor Gary W. Gallagher and 2 others | 31 min | Categories: The Great Courses Plus Online History Courses
Declining profitability before 1800 suggested that slavery would gradually die out, as it did in northern states where immigrant labor made slave labor unprofitable. But the success of cotton agriculture and the labor needed to sustain it resurrected slavery. Northern abolitionists gathered force in the 1830s; southern demands for protection and extradition of runaways led to mob violence and aggressive antislavery organizing in the North.