Existing comment:
The Business of Slavery
American slavery was big business. On the eve of the Civil War, four million slaves produced cash crops -- cotton, tobacco, and rice -- that were exported at high prices. In addition to the crops they raised, slaves themselves were commodities to be bought, sold, bred, and borrowed against. A variety of service industries supported the slave economy including dealers, insurance companies, and shippers. The federal government also derived revenue from taxes on the sale of slaves and the export of slave-grown products |