Final answer:
Advertising before the abolition of slavery in 1863 played a pivotal role in the domestic slave trade, facilitating the sale and transport of slaves within the United States, particularly from the Upper South to the Deep South to support the cotton industry.
Step-by-step explanation:
Until slavery was abolished in 1863, advertising contributed to the practice and the southern economy by selling new slaves and aiding in what could be called the domestic slave trade. As the international slave trade was outlawed in 1808, there was a marked increase in the demand for slave labor within the United States. Plantations and other agricultural enterprises depended heavily on this labor, particularly after the domestic slave trade was fueled by shifts in crop cultivation from tobacco to wheat in the Upper South, leading to a 'surplus' of slaves in regions like Virginia and Maryland. These surplus slaves were then sold and transported to states in the Deep South, such as Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, supporting the region's booming cotton industry.
Likewise, New Orleans became the largest slave market in the United States, with substantial economic activities surrounding the trade. White landowners, slave traders, and middlemen alike profited from this system, which was pivotal to the Southern economy and had profound impacts on the enslaved individuals who faced displacement and family separation regularly.