One observer, a writer named Samuel Powell pointed out in Notes on Southern Wealth and Northern Profits (1861) a key reason why slavery was never abandoned in the South for more technologically advanced means of farming: "A great secret of the productiveness of slave labor is that the tiller of the soil is nourished with the simplest, the coarsest, and the grossest fare" (p. 7). "The slave system," he continued, "builds no cities, few mills, few ships; it does little for common roads and bridges, canals, manufactures, trade, or commerce of its own—its gifts and its mission do not seem to lie in that way" (p. 8).
A Serious Miscalculation
The South believed—mistakenly, as it turned out—that its dominance of the cotton market would help it in two ways: First, the lack of cotton for Northern textile mills would put them into an economic tailspin and force them to make peace and accept the secession of the Confederacy. Second, countries like the United Kingdom, which used large quantities of cotton, would want to ally themselves with the South to ensure an uninterrupted supply, This should help!
