The Slavocracy and Empire

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John Fenton

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A member here proposed that the location of a TCRR was primary in causing the war. I could not read the research so i did my own.
What i found is that very much of what the poster claimed was true but distorted. There are others who have written about this in their dissertations and use much of the same language, like “dreams of the untold wealth of Asia”. One even mentioned achieving “Columbus’s dream “ but i found them saying what i have been trying to say all along.
The southern “dream” was of a slave based empire, or as Richard Kluger called a “slavocracy”. This empire would stretch from coast to coast and would export across the Atlantic, Liverpool, and the pacific, Canton. The empire could include Cuba, Nicaragua, parts of Mexico and Brazil. It would be global in nature and evidently many southern businessmen could think of nothing else although they were a minority.
But what i discovered was that the north had the same vision and a multi faceted plan was put into action to achieve it . Since the distance to asia was shorter in the north and northern fur and whaling operations were already established they sought a northern route and is why Seward bought Alaska.
The south though, needed to have new slave lands, whether suited for their labor or not, and needed to disperse the concentration of slaves in small areas, to be safe from revolt and assault, especially their women. They needed the territory first then the RR for communications and commerce but if not a highway would suffice. The aim was not the RR but the empire. Some proposals only required a road or highway, which they accomplished. It and a possible RR were called the “slave road “ and the road to disunion ran west. The point is that both the north and south were seeking to gain commercial access to asia and the pacific and it did not require slavery but the south was intent on expanding their markets for “king cotton” produced by slaves. While there were some like Gadsden who promoted diversity , they were in the minority. The whole idea was to expand slavery and use it for empire, the TCRR was a tool for accomplishing this but was not as important as territory open to slavery, they could block northern routes until the opportunity for a all southern route was available.
Below are some excerpts and links to dissertations that the authors made available without reservations.

There was little home market for an intra-South trade. In the short term, the best use for capital was to invest it in more slaves and land rather than in taxing it to support canals, railroads, roads, or in dredging rivers. Richard Kluger

Southerners might have gained a great deal under the 1850 land grant act had they concentrated their efforts. But continued opposition to Federal aid, filibustering, an unenthusiastic President, the spirit of "Young America", and efforts to build railroads and canals across Central America and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico divided their forces, leaving a lot of time for the Pacific railroad. Moreover, the Compromise of 1850 encouraged Southerners not to antagonize opponents by resurrecting the railroad controversy.
— Jere W. Roberson, The South and the Pacific Railroad, 1845–1855

The effect was such that railroad development, which accelerated in the North, stagnated in the South.

Much of the drive for acquiring land was at first centered in the Democratic Party – the Party of Jefferson, Jackson, and yes, journalist O'Sullivan, in 1845 an influential advocate for the Democratic party, the party of what Kluger calls the "slavocracy."
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The "slavocracy" didn't practice sound agricultural practices with the mono-crop of King Cotton, so they were always seeking new lands suitable for cotton to replace their worn-out soil.
David M. Kinchen on Richard Kluger’s “Seizing Destiny”

https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4413&context=edissertations

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=akron1333561407&disposition=inline
 
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