January 1840
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.
Underground Railroad conductors face lethal danger throughout the 1840s–50s. Harriet Tubman begins her work in 1849, making approximately 13 missions and liberating roughly 70 people. Conductor Calvin Fairbank is imprisoned for 17 years total for helping enslaved people escape. Thomas Garrett of Wilmington, DE is fined into bankruptcy in 1848 — he vows to keep going and does.
Events
- c. 1840Enslaved 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.
- c. 1840Enslaved 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. Northern banks, textile mills, and insurance companies profit directly from this system.
- c. 1840Underground Railroad Operators Face Death, Prosecution, Violence
Underground Railroad conductors face lethal danger throughout the 1840s–50s. Harriet Tubman begins her work in 1849, making approximately 13 missions and liberating roughly 70 people. Conductor Calvin Fairbank is imprisoned for 17 years total for helping enslaved people escape. Thomas Garrett of Wilmington, DE is fined into bankruptcy in 1848 — he vows to keep going and does.