1860 was when slavery was a major issue in the United States. It had been established way before 1860 but this is when it became a major issue in the U.S. Slavery goes all the way back to 1619 when a Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of Africans for food in 1619. The Africans became indentured servants. As cotton became the center of America's economy. The more cotton that was grown, the more slave labor was needed to pick it. This brought a lot of attention to slaves and their human rights. Many anti-slavery societies were formed and slavery soon became a major issue. By 1860, slavery became the center of attention in the US. You either lived in a slave state or a free state, owned slaves or were protesting against it.
There is proof that slaves existed as far back as 4th millennium BC. The first slaves to exist in the US where in 1680 in Jamestown, VA. In 1860 there where 14 slave states in the US and 15 free states. Slaves in the 1860's were used for doing laborious work on plantations, often picking and growing crops, they were also used as servants. They often received a shelter, of some sort, to live in, clothes, food and plenty of .
resting time. Slaves were needed to maintain large plantations growing crops. In a sense, the South needed slaves to help grow crops to trade with the North. Farming was the only thing the South could do to make money. .
The type of slavery back in the day where blacks worked for whites has now been abolished and we no longer face it or have to deal with such an ugly thing. Slaver does still exist, yes in other countries we know but also in ours. The slaves in The U.S are slaves to what is known as corporate America so we got rid of one form and now are leaving another form.
