To find a shorter route to asia
Black codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force after slavery was abolished during the Civil War. Under black codes, many states required Black people to sign yearly labor contracts; if they refused, they risked being arrested, fined and forced into unpaid labor.
Even as former enslaved people fought to assert their independence and gain economic autonomy during the earliest years of Reconstruction. While the codes granted certain freedoms to African Americans—including the right to buy and own property, marry, make contracts and testify in court (only in cases involving people of their own race)—their primary purpose was to restrict Black peoples’ labor and activity. Black people who broke labor contracts were subject to arrest, beating and forced labor, and apprenticeship laws forced many minors into unpaid labor for white planters.
Mass production of goods resulted in the use of mechanization to have an oversupply. Some labor work were replaced by machines, which created unemployment and change of needed skills for an upgrade. Common work can be done by machines while the craft was still handed down to skilled workers. There was a high demand for buying machines that can reproduce products faster.
Farming scenes are very difficult to set up, especially to make them seem peaceful. I had to help make a farm scene for a play and it was very hard to do with everyone moving stuff around.
