ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by dirt poor,

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that soil that struggles to make ends meet.

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Yeah, well, sorry.

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How did the depletion of farmland in the Southeast

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increase tensions over slavery?

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Hmm. And here are your potential answers.

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[ buzzing ] [ mumbling ]

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[ mumbling continues ] All right.

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Well, when cotton was booming in the South,

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farmers didn't think twice about overworking the soil,

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or the slaves they "employed," for that matter.

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And "employed" is in quotation marks there.

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But eventually, that intensive farming sucked

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the nutrients from the ground, causing a whole mess of problems.

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Let's see which answer best describes

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how this development soiled farmers' plans.

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All right, did the depletion of farmland in the Southeast

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increase tensions over slavery because A -

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former farmers attempted to move North

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with their slaves? Hmm?

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Well, some slaveowners did attempt to settle in the North

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with their slaves. But this relocation wasn't necessarily

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a direct result of failed farms.

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Moving on from A.

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Did failed farms cause problems because B -

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slaves were worked twice as hard in order to recover lost profits?

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Well, regardless of the number of slaves on a plantation

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or how hard they worked, the soil was too depleted

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to grow anything other than resentment.

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So that knocks out B and C.

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Which means that the depletion of farmland

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increased tensions because D -

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debate sparked over the spread of slavery

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as farmers moved to the Southwest.

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Plantation owners abandoned their farms in the Southeast

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for greener pastures - literally -

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in the territories of the Southwest.

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As the map shows, many of these territories were

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undeveloped and, since they fell under the slavery line

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of the Missouri Compromise, many farmers relocated,

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bringing their slaves with them.

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So D is the right answer.

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As these slave owners moved West in search of better soil,

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political tensions bubbled over, giving a preview of the

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massive conflict to come.

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Talk about getting your hands dirty.

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[ vacuum sound ]

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