Economic Factors Contributing to African Slavery in the United States

There were several economic factors that contributed to African slavery in the United States.   Demands of plantation farming, slave trade as its own industry, and tariffs were just a few of the economic factors that contributed to slavery in the United States, not to mention the fact that it is cheaper to force someone to do the job than it would be to hire someone to do it.
Plantation farming was a profitable way to farm in the South.   Slaves were forced to work on sugar, tobacco, rice, sugar, indigo, and cotton plantations.   Plantations were more profitable than small farms due to the size of the crops and because slaves were not compensated, fed very little, and clothed to the bare minimum, it did not cost much to run plantations.   Cotton was in even higher demand after the invention of the cotton gin, and a lot of plantation owners decided to expand their plantations to allow for more cotton.   This meant even more slaves were needed to work them.   The cotton gin made it hard to keep up with the demand for cotton.   They could now turn the cotton into textile quicker than they could pick it.    
Slaves were initially purchased.   Once a slave was paid for, they belonged to their owner for life.   If a female slave was purchased, and she had children, the children then belonged to the owner for life.   Some people purchased both men and women slaves so that they could reproduce more slaves and used slaves as investment opportunities.   Plantation owners realized that slave trade was profitable.   This idea brought on an even higher demand for slaves, as well as a new economy.   The soil in the upper southern states lost nutrients due to too many harvests without any “down time” in between.   This decline in soil nutrition resulted in a decline for the need of plantation workers.   These plantation owners quickly realized that they could sell their slaves to the plantation owners further south to turn a profit.   This realization helped both the Upper and Lower South...