ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Tobacco Road,

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the cloudiest street in the neighborhood.

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All right.

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Southern plantation owners supported slavery

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in the Louisiana Territory primarily because of

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what environmental development?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ toilet flushes ]

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All right. So what's this question asking?

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Well we know that Southern plantation owners

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would have supported the expansion of slavery

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pretty much anywhere.

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But this question makes it sound like there was something related

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to the environment that made this new acquisition

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particularly acquirable.

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So let's check out the answers.

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Did plantation owners want slavery in the Louisiana Territory

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because of A - the ongoing drought in the West Indies?

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Hmm. The weather was pretty normal in the West Indies

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at that time, so it's not A.

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Did they want slavery in the Territory because of B -

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the lack of usable ports along the Atlantic Coast?

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Well, actually, the Atlantic Coast had dozens

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of major ports. That's how all these colonies

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got started in the first place. So that eliminates B.

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Were plantation owners supportive of the expansion of slavery

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because of D - the rise of plantation farming in New England?

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Oh, no way.

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New England has never relied on plantation farming.

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That was exclusively the South's game. So D is a no-go.

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And that means they supported slavery in the Louisiana Territory because of C -

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the over-cultivation of arable land in the South.

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Tobacco is as bad for the land as it is for your lungs.

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And when it's planted year after year, the soil ends up

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losing its nutrients, which makes it

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inhospitable for crops down the line.

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So with all this over-cultivation happening in the South,

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plantation owners looked to the new Territories

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for more arable land.

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So this means that choice C is the right answer.

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Well, looks like too much of a good and bad thing can kill you.

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[ hiss ]

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