Throughout history, America has benefitted from the economic exploitation of African Americans. As a youth, Anne Moody experienced life growing up on the plantation as a child of sharecroppers. Her powerful and honest autobiography described the economic hardship in the rural south. Anne's early memories of the Carter plantation depicted the inferior living and working conditions of African Americans in comparison to the affluence of the whites that they worked for. The Carter's "castle" on the hill which overlooked the rotten shacks of the farmers who worked the land below, reflected how black exploitation benefitted the productive growth of America.The Economic Aspect of SlaveryThe economic exploitation of blacks has its roots throughout history. The beginning of slavery, it can be argued, began the exploitation of blacks in America. It was the key feature of the southern economy and the source of wealth and power of the dominant class in southern society. Money was the motivating factor behind free labor and ultimately became the most important business enterprise of that time.Economic conditions, including soil and climate determined the number of slaves in a given locality. The majority of the black population were found in the colonies that produced the greatest agricultural staples, such as sugar, rice, tobacco and cotton. The land most suitable for cotton production became the land where plantation slavery was most concentrated. Since picking cotton was relatively simple, it was a powerful stimulant for exploitation, providing year-round employment for men, women, children and the elderly.Agriculture however, was not the only source of labor that the slaves were identified with. The shortage of labor of white artisans led the owners of the plantation to train the slaves in the handicraft trade. The plantation itself was a self-sufficient economic unit and required skills in woodwork, building-trade and leather work....
