The cotton boom caused a huge increase in the domestic slave trade. Plantation owners in the Upper South (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and Tennessee) sold their slaves to meet the demand for labor because of the rise in cotton usage. Cotton was the number one southern crop. The already large slave system became larger as slaves were smuggled into the country. The motto of Southerners became “cotton is king”
Eighty percent of the South’s cotton went to England by way of northern shippers. These shippers were able to buy cotton wholesale and sell it at a premium. 75% of the cotton used in England’s production came from the U.S. England was so dependant on the south’s cotton and the north’s transportation of it, both region’s heavily benefited from this export.
Mid 19th century,