The Film: Interview Transcripts: James Oliver Horton

James Oliver Horton, Ph.D., historian on
the economic impact of slavery
Cotton is terribly important, not only to the South, but to the nation.  In fact, by 1815, cotton is the most valuable export of the United States.  By 1840, cotton is more valuable than everything else the United States exports put together, so the value of slaves is tremendous.  By the time of the Civil War, by 1860, the dollar value of slave property is greater than the dollar value of all of America’s railroads, all of America’s banks, all of America’s manufacturing put together.  Slavery is no sideshow in American society.  It is very much the main event, and the cotton crop that slaves produced makes America important to the world.

Do you realize that the American South by 1860 produces seven eighths of the world’s cotton.  Now, that’s equivalent of OPEC today and oil.  The fact is that when the Confederacy considers going independent, seceding from the United States, one of the things that encourages those people in the South to believe that a separate independent Confederacy is possible, is the fact that it controls so much of the world’s cotton, and cotton is important, not only to the cotton textile industries of New England, but also to the textile industries of England, of France, of Germany, so that cotton has very important economic and consequently, political power.

the role of free blacks

inter-racial alliances

the decision to escape

importance of
Western Pennsylvania

John Brown

black patriotism

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