Slavery's Economy

CASE BRIEF: By the mid-1800s, cotton was the engine of the American economy — and that engine ran on enslaved labor.

TASK: Analyze plantation ledgers, enslaved persons' narratives, and cotton export data to explain slavery's role in the national economy.

EVIDENCE: Plantation ledger excerpt listing enslaved people as property - Excerpt from a formerly enslaved person's narrative (e.g., Solomon Northup) - Cotton export growth chart, 1800-1860

ANALYZE: How does each source type reveal a different truth about slavery? What does the ledger's language reveal about how enslavers viewed enslaved people? How did cotton's economic importance affect political power?

BUILD A CLAIM: Construct a claim about how deeply slavery was embedded in the 19th-century American economy, using all three source types.

RUBRIC: Integrates quantitative and qualitative evidence - Names specific economic effects - Treats enslaved voices as primary evidence, not illustration