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Aslavocracy (fromslave +-ocracy) is asociety primarily ruled by aclass ofslaveholders, such as those in thesouthernUnited States andtheir confederacy during theAmerican Civil War. The term was initially coined in the 1830s bynorthernabolitionists as aterm of disparagement and subsequently used in wider senses, including as a term for the planter class of such a society itself.[1] Slavocracies are also sometimes known asplantocracies, after "planter" used as a term for the owners ofplantations.
A number of European colonies in theNew World were largely slavocracies, usually consisting of a small Europeansettler population relying on a predominantly West Africanchattel slave population as well as smaller numbers ofindentured servants, both European and non-European in origin. In theCaribbean,the slaves were primarily usedto produce sugar, while inNorth Americathe slaves were primarily usedto produce cotton. Theseproslavery societies attempted to resist theabolitionist movement[citation needed] and subsequently relied onfreed black and poor whitesharecroppers for labor followingabolition.
One prominent organization largely representing and collectively funded by a number of British slavocracies was the "West India Interest", which lobbied theBritish parliament on behalf of planters. It is credited with delaying the abolition of the slave trade from the 1790s until 1806–1808 and then delaying emancipation into the 1820s and 1830s, extracting reparations for the lost "property" in a policy known as "amelioration".[citation needed]