The complexities of race affected the Jacksonian era through insight into the white man's desires for economic expansion. Democracy, in its beginnings in early 19th century America, considered all “people” to be equal. However, this designation of “people” excluded Africans and Native Americans. The institution of slavery was a payback venture for Southern planters eager to produce more staple crops. Many white Americans led extravagant lives thanks to the large income they earned from working on their property. Additionally, the controversy over the removal of Native Americans from their lands highlighted the voracity with which European Americans inflicted damage on indigenous civilizations during the United States' antebellum period. The Indian Removal Act and slavery, and all its conflicts, led to ignoble race relations during the Jacksonian period and are still visible in the 21st century. The preceding controversial events had a direct correlation to the economic development of the United States and drove the inherent altruism inherent in democracies into a history marked by racial inequality. The proto-industrialization of the textile industry in the northern part of America brought about the beginning of cotton as the king crop. Cotton was grown in the southern states and was the most valuable export commodity before the war. Plantation agriculture, with its inherent system of slavery, was used in the early 19th century to meet the high demands of a growing economy. The issue of race was linked to slavery as the easily recognizable color of Africans' skin, used as a badge of their oppression. According to Harry L. Watson, European races placed stereotypes in the middle of paper......property multiplied following the removal of Indians from their southern native lands. More slave property was demanded from southern planters on the newly acquired acreage through the controversial Indian Removal Act. The evils of expansionism further divided politics and caused many difficult relations between the races. Although politicians worked hard to keep the racial issue at the forefront of political discourse, economic expansion was inevitable. The enslavement and abstraction of Native Americans was a crushing inequity that ultimately brought about the downfall of the Union and fixed race relations into an intractable entity. (W- 57 & d- 3, 12, 13) Works Cited Watson, Harry L. Andrew Jackson v. Henry Clay: Democracy and Development in Antebellum America. New York: Bedford/St. Martin, 1998. ix + 262 pages. Index, illustrations, selected bibliography