Jackson Pettus
EN 102-011
Professor Jess Hamlet
March 27, 2018
The Economic Divide Cause by Slavery
Race relations in The United States are in poor shape, but this isn’t anything new. There
is a strong divide between many cultures in The United States, but one divide is much deeper
than divides between most cultures. The divide was caused primarily by the enslavement of
African Americans. Slavery is a racial injustice that was ended in The United States at the end of
the Civil War. However, there was still a significant disadvantage for African Americans left in
the wake of slavery. Race relations in the United States, between whites and African Americans
in particular, are poor because slavery caused an economic divide that has deepened as time has
passed. Many things have affected race relations in the United States, such as the moral injustice
brought about by slavery, but the economic divide caused by slavery has been the most divisive;
it has affected the day to day life of African Americans for several centuries.
Slavery is one of the most immoral and shameful events in American history. During that
time, African Americans were being transported, sold, and deployed in the rural south of the then
young nation of the United States. These slaves were given no rights and were being torn from
their families and forced to work in horrific conditions in places they had never been before. The
economy of the young United States was fueled by this free labor; plantations in the south were
producing at high output levels at low costs because the black people doing the work were not
being paid a wage. All of this ended December 6, 1865. The ratification of the 13th amendment
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to the United States Constitution brought with it the abolishment of slavery. However, the end of
slavery did not solve the problem of racial injustice.
The end of slavery brought with it many issues that still affect the United States today. As
millions of slaves were granted their freedom, the work force was forced to expand to suit the
needs of a paid labor force that now would be working for wages, instead of for free. Plantation
owners were unhappy about losing their once free labor advantage. Because of these changes,
there formed an economic discrepancy between the wealth of white citizens, who had been
working for wages their whole lives, and African Americans, who were just now receiving rights
that the United States constitution promised to all men. This divide is highlighted by the huge
difference in wealth that existed between these two cultures. There was an inability or
