Enslaved People

Domestic Slave Trade Explodes After Import Ban, Creating Second Middle Passage

1808-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

With the federal ban on international slave importation taking effect January 1, 1808, the domestic slave trade within the United States begins a massive expansion that will ultimately transport over one million enslaved people from the Upper South to the Deep South over the next five decades, a …

Slave traders Upper South planters Deep South cotton planters Enslaved people slavery institutional-corruption domestic-slave-trade family-separation forced-migration

Cotton Gin Patent Transforms Slavery from Declining Institution to Booming Economic Engine

1793-03-14 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 10/10

Eli Whitney receives a patent for the cotton gin, a machine using rotating brushes and teeth to separate cotton fibers from seeds, revolutionizing the processing of short-staple cotton that grows easily in the Deep South but had been difficult to process profitably. Whitney hopes his invention will …

Eli Whitney Southern planters Enslaved people slavery institutional-corruption economic-transformation cotton-economy technological-exploitation