Slavery Purpose: Slaves were used in the South to farm cash crops such as tobacco without having the farmers needing to pay for labor. With the South economy being heavily based on agriculture having cheap labor helped their economy. After the Revolutionary War slavery wasn’t as necessary or as profitable because of the recent drop in price of tobacco products neither was cotton because it took too long to clean. In 1793 the cotton gin was invented and that invention revolutionized the speed in which cotton could be cleaned this invention caused slavery to become profitable and the main cash crop of the South to be cotton. Slaves were then needed in the South because they were the most profitable way to obtain cash crops.
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