Hist signature assignment

David Christy on “King Cotton”

Relative to the other authors selected for the signature assignment, David Christy is an obscure
figure. Christy worked as a journalist in Cincinnati, Ohio, and he had a strong interest in political
economy. His only claim to fame was that he wrote Cotton Is King; Or, the Culture of Cotton,
and Its Relation to Agriculture, Manufacture, and Commerce; and also to the Free People of
Colored People of the United States, and to Those Who Hold that Slavery in Itself Is Sinful (2d
ed.; 1856). Christy argued that efforts to end slavery had failed—and would fail in the future—
because cotton production had become embedded in the national and world economy.
Southern cotton fed the factories of European and the American North, and enslaved labor
planted and picked that cotton. Produce from the Northwestern United States provided food
for the South’s enslaved labor force, and money from southern planters enabled western
farmers to earn a living. Emancipation, Christy argued, would destroy the entire system. Any
attempt to do so was pointless. “There was a time when American slave labor sustained no
such relations to the manufactures and commerce of the world … when … emancipation …
might have been effected. But that period has passed forever away … at present, the institution
of slavery is … too massive for human power and wisdom to overthrow” (74-75).

Although Christy, a non-slaveholder living in a free state, claimed he made no defense of the
institution, proslavery advocates embraced his work and cited Cotton Is King as the economic
justification of slavery. In the passage here, Christy describes the scale of the world cotton
market and the place of slavery in it. Why did Christy believe this situation was beneficial to
everyone involved?

ECONOMICAL RELATIONS OF SLAVERY. 55

CHAPTER V.

THE RELATIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY TO THE INDUSTRIAL INTER

ESTS OF OUR COUNTRY; TO THE DEMANDS OF COMMERCE; AND TO THE

PRESENT POLITICAL CRISIS.

Present condition of Slavery—Not an isolated system—-Its relations to other in

dustrial interests-—To manufactures, commerce, trade, human comfort—ItI

benevolent aspect—The reverse picture—Immense value of tropical posses

sions to Great Britain——England’s attempted monopoly of Manufactures-—

Her dependence on American Planters—-Cotton Planters attempt to mo

nopolize Cotton markets—Fu.9ion of these parties—Free Trade essential to

their success-—Influence on agriculture, mechanics—Exports of Cotton, To

bacco, etc.—Inc1-eased production of Provisions-—Their extent—New markets

needed.

Tun institution of slavery, at this moment, gives indications of

a vitality that was never anticipated by its friends or foes. Its

enemies oflzen supposed it about ready to expire, from the wounds

they had inflicted, when in truth it had taken two steps in ad

vance, while they had taken twice the number in an opposite

direction. In each successive conflict, its assailants have been

weakened, while its dominion has been extended.

This has arisen from causes too generally overlooked. Slavery ___7

is not an isolated system, but is so mingledrwith the business of
mofld§’fh’sTit?’wa1’1ves’Tacilitiesfii‘roin the most innocent transac

Vdmapital and labor, in Europe and America, are largely

employed in the manufactureof: cotton. These goods, to a great

extent, may be seen fi-eighting every vessel, from Christian nations,

that traverses the seas of the globe, and filling the warehouses

and shelves of the merchants over two-thirds of the world. _By _

the industry, skill, and enterprise employed in the manufacture 5?”

cotton, mankind_:_!-_1’_e__‘t)<_att__e_>;1″_g1’o_tVI’1ed; their comfort better promoted ;
gelfeai-§l‘i’r1d11_s‘l§’fly more highly stimulated; commerce more widely

extended; and civilization more rapidly advanced than in any

preceding age. -‘

To the superficial observer, all the agencies, based upon the sale

and manufacture of cotton, seem to be legitimately engagedwin

promoting human happiness; and he, doubtless, T5e1’s‘i‘f1’§é’ invok

re,

/

66 COTTON IS KING; OR,

ing Heaven’s choicest blessings upon them. When he sees the

stockholders in the cotton corporations receiving their dividends,

the operatives their wages, the merchants their profits, and civil

ized people everywhere clothed comfortably in cottons, he can not

refrain from exclaiming: The lines have fallen unto them in

pleasant places; yea, they have a goodlylieritagel

But turn a moment to the source whence the raw cotton, the

basis of these operations, is obtained, and observe the aspect of

things in that direction. When the statistics on the subject are

examined, it appears that nine-tenths of the cotton consumed in

the Christian world is the product of the slave labor of the United

States.‘ It is this monopoly that has given to slavery its commer

cial value; and, while this monopoly is retained, the institution

will continue to extend itself wherever it can find room to spread.

He who looks for any other result, ‘.must expect that nations,

which, for centuries, have waged war to extend their commerce,

will now abandon that means of aggrandizcment, and bankrupt

themselves to force the abolition of American slavery!

This is not all. The economical value of slavery, as an agency

for supplying the means of extending manufactures and com

merce, has long been understood by statesmensf The discovery

* See Appendix, Table I.

f It may be well here to illustrate this point, by an extract from McQueen, of

England, in 1844, when this highly intelligent gentleman was urgng upon his

government the great necessity which existed for securing to itself, as speedily

as possible, the control of the labor and the products of tropical Africa. In ref

erence to the benefits which had been‘ derived from her West India colonies,

before the suppression of the slave trade and the emancipation of the slaves

had rendered them comparatively unproductive, he said : “ During the fearful

struggle of a quarter of a century, for her existence as a nation, against the

power and resources of Europe, directed by the most intelligent but remorselcss

military ambit-ion against her, the command of the productions of the torrid zone,

and the advantageous commerce which that afforded, gave to Great Britain the

power and the resources which enabled her to meet, to combat, and to over

come, her numerous and reckless enemies in every battle-field, whether by sea

or land, throughout the world. In her the world saw realized the fabled giant

of antiquity. With her hundred hands she grasped her foes in every region

under heaven, and crushed them with resistless energy.”

In further presenting the considerations which he considered necessary to 80

cure the adoption of the policy he was urging, Mr. McQueen referred to the

difiiculties which were then surrounding Great Britain, and the extent to which

rival nations had surpassed her in tropical cultivation. He continued : “ The

O