750000 people were freed. Start studying 53 Slavery and the Plantation System. Plantation Slavery And Landownership In The West Highlands And Islands Legacies And Lessons Economic History Society In order to under-stand whv this happens we must investi-gate the relations of production in thb plantation system and how it changes. . The cotton gin was an invention at the end of the 18th century that had a drastic impact on the institution of slavery and the trajectory of the new United States nation. The northern states gradually took steps to abolish slavery with. First we were a fledgling colony and so it took years to build up trade networks and plantation infrastructure. With relatively cheap labor increasing demand and a system of regulation the colonial plantation system was born. To show that capitalism ended slavery in the end historians are able to draw from these two arguments. Masters only gave light punishments a...