The tendencies to a patriarchal serfdom,
recognizable in the age of Washington and Jefferson, began slowly but
surely to disappear; and in the second quarter of the century Southern
slavery was irresistibly changing from a family institution to an
industrial system.
The development of Southern slavery has heretofore been viewed so
exclusively from the ethical and social standpoint that we are apt to
forget its close and indissoluble connection with the world's cotton
market. Beginning with 1820, a little after the close of the Napoleonic
wars, when the industry of cotton manufacture had begun its modern
development and the South had definitely assumed her position as chief
producer of raw cotton, we find the average price of cotton per pound,
81/2_d._ From this time until 1845 the price steadily fell, until in the
latter year it reached 4_d._; the only exception to this fall was in the
years 1832-1839, when, among other things, a strong increase in the
English demand, together with an attempt of the young slave power to
"corner" the market, sent the price up as high as 11_d._ The demand for
cotton goods soon outran a crop which McCullough had pronounced
"prodigious," and after 1845 the price started on a steady rise, which,
except for the checks suffered during the continental revolutions and
the Crimean War, continued until 1860.
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