Homework #3

After reading Painter and learning more about the history of African Americans, I believe that economics played a larger part in the slave trade than racism. As Painter states "slaves were items of trade, producers of agricultural commodities, and capital, slaves fed the American and British economics and made possible the industrial revolutions of both countries" (84). Even though economics was more important in the slave trade, racism still contributed to the harsh effects of the slave trade. Also in the reading Painter explains that even Native Americans owned slaves, and also a tiny handful African Americans, but African Americans worked the cotton fields that fed the textile mills. They also used children as slaves and had them working around the house as early as age seven. The African Americans were on the bottom of the social scale, spoke a different language, had different customs, and were a different color, so I can't deny racism completely, I just feel that economics was more important. Everything that the south depended on for its wealth such as, tobacco, rice, hemp, and sugar slaves produced. All these reasons show that economics was more important, even though racism was a huge part of the slave trade. 

- Mara H.