They saw that they could control the product and regulate the price of a staple in constant demand among every people on the globe.

The investment of the South in slaves represented a capital of two thousand millions of dollars, reckoned only upon the salable value of the chattel.

Estimated by its capacity to produce wealth, the institution of Slavery represented to the white population of the South a sum vastly in excess of two thousand millions.

Without slave-labor, the cotton, rice, and sugar lands were, in the view of Southern men, absolutely valueless.
With the labor of the slave, they could produce three hundred millions a year in excess of the food required for the population.
Three hundred millions a year represented a remunerative interest on a capital of five thousand millions of dollars.

In the history of the world there has perhaps never been so vast an amount of productive capital firmly consolidated under one power, subject to the ultimate control and direction of so small a number of men.
THE SOUTH AND THE SLAVE-TRADE.
With such extraordinary results attained, the natural desire of slave-holders was to strive for development and expansion.