The+Growth+of+Slavery+in+the+1800's

There is a very simple, but sad fact in the book, __Slave Trade__ by Matthew Kachur. "In 1790, the U.S. enslaved population was less than 700,000. By 1860, it had risen to 3,953,750."

=**-Differences of slavery in the North and the South**= Slavery was very different between the North and South. In the North, many slaves worked indoors as maids or caretakers. In the South, many slaves were outdoors on the fields, picking cotton. Slavery in the North was far less severe than slavery in the South for many reasons. First, there was a far greater risk in disease in the South due to the high temperatures and that slaves worked in larger groups. This made it easier for a single person to get a disease and for a disease to spread. In a typical northern slave owner's home, there were normally only one or two slaves in one household, so living conditions were far better. =**-Slavery moving west**= In the 1800's, there was a huge calling to the west; and in this rush, many slave owners brought their slaves with them. With newly founded states such as California, and territories like Oregon, Nevada and New Mexico, many people were attracted to the west. In the west, slaves were put on mines to dig for gold during and after the gold rush. They had to work long hours with very high risk to disease on these mines and they found very little gold. This was very unfortunate because they were punished if they didn't return with a certain amount of gold. =**-Cause of expansion**= In the early years of the new nation, slavery was dying out. Cotton was getting more expensive to produce, there was becoming less and less demand. Slavery was at the edge of extinction. But in 1793, Eli Whitney invented a device that would become the main cause of expansion in the 1800s, the cotton gin. The cotton gin was a device that picked seeds from cotton at a very high rate. By hand, a slave could pick the seeds of one pound of cotton per day. But with the cotton gin, a slave could pick 50 pounds of cotton per day. Some historians believe that the Northern economy also boosted expansion. By buying cotton and other southern products, northerners kept the southern economy alive, which kept slavery in power.

=**-Impact** **of expansion** = Expansion of slavery changed the course of american history. The most important and obvious reason is that it was a main cause of the secession of the south and the Civil War. But, slavery didn't cause a civil war right away. It first caused the Missouri Compromise which kept the country together for a few more years. In the Missouri Compromise, the north was guaranteed that all states north of 43 degrees by 40 degrees in the Louisiana Purchase would become free states if Missouri was admitted as a slave state. This compromise would eventually be voided by the Kansas Nebraska act and would lead to the Civil War.