Enslaved People Produce Two-Thirds of US Export Earnings

By 1840 enslaved labor produces nearly two-thirds of US export earnings through cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar. The South produces 1.35 billion pounds of cotton annually. Enslaved workers on cotton plantations labor from sunup to sundown, facing whipping for falling short of daily quotas. Profit from this system finances Northern banks, textile mills, and insurance companies.