Antebellum Period Research Paper

Along with the demand for cotton came a demand for labor. Black slaves from Africa were used to hand pick cotton in cotton fields, a tedious and daunting job. After Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin, cotton production skyrocketed from the average 3,000 bails per year to 300,000 bails per year. Unlike the north, the south lacked transportation improvements such as railways, roads, and water canals.

The antebellum period was full of social reform movements based on the urge to eradicate evil and improve human conditions in society. Despite the attempt to deal with a wide variety of reforms to provide positive changes to society these reform movements were met with varying degrees of success. This essay will focus on five of the major social reform movements of that era discussing their accomplishments, failures and impacts on America as a whole. They are the reforms of abolition, women’s suffrage, temperance, institutional and educational reforms. The reform movements of the 1830’s and 1840’s were largely due to humanitarian reasons because of a period of Enlightenment in the previous century which emphasized rational over

The Antebellum period in the United States history was considered as time between 1820 and 1862. During this period, significant changes took place in terms of political, social and economic effects in America. The United States economy was changed from an underdeveloped country of frontiersmen and farmers into an industrialized economy. The South American depended on agriculture while the Northern part had many industries. The two parts differed in terms of slavery policies in the country as the south advocated for preservation of slaves while the North championed abolition of slavery policies. In addition, during this period the south and North had established distinct cultures because of their geographical difference (Mitchell, 8). The south had fertile soils and suitable climate that supported agriculture while the north had cold climate and rocky soils that could hardly support any farming.

The Antebellum period, also known as the plantation era, which was happened before the civil war but after the war of 1812. According to history.net, it was characterized by thee rise of abolition and the gradual polarization of the country between abolitionists and supporters of slavery ("Antebellum Period | HistoryNet", 2017). We also saw during this time thee shift in manufacturing from the south to the north and the beginning of the industrial revolution. The economy was booming in the south due to the demand of cotton and implementation of the cotton gin which made manufacturing cotton easier ("Antebellum Period | HistoryNet", 2017).

labor” (Foner, 393). Cotton not only became the most profitable crop for the Southern farmers,

In 1794, U.S. inventor Eli Whitney patented a machine that transformed the production of cotton by significantly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber called the cotton gin. By the middle of the 19th century cotton had become America’s leading export. This gave Sothern’s the rationalization to maintain and expand slavery despite large number of abolitionists in America. While the cotton gin made cotton processing easier, it facilitated planters in earning greater profits, resulting in larger cotton crops. This in turn increased slavery because it was the cheapest form of labor. As for the North, particularly New England, the cotton gin and cotton’s increase meant a steady supply of raw materials for its textile mills.

The crops grown on plantations and the slavery system changed significantly between 1800-1860. In the early 1800s, plantation owners grew a variety of crops – cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, hemp, and wheat. Cotton had the potential to be profitable, but there was wasn’t much area where cotton could be grown. However, the invention of the cotton gin changed this - the cotton gin was a machine that made it much easier to separate the seeds from cotton. Plantation owners could now grow lots of cotton; this would make them a lot of money. As a result, slavery became more important because the demand for cotton was high worldwide. By 1860, cotton was the main export of the south. The invention of the cotton gin and high demand for cotton changed

With its warm climate and fertile soil, the South became an agrarian society, where tobacco, rice, sugar, cotton, wheat, and hemp defined the economy (“Colonial Economy”). Because of a labor shortage, landowners bought African slaves to work their massive plantations. Even small-scale farmers often used slave labor as a means to help increase their production rate ("John C. Calhoun's Defense of Slavery"). After the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, cotton could finally be mass produced (“Slavery”). However, in order to pick all the cotton, slave labor would be needed, thus the reason for hundreds of thousands of imported slaves during the 1700s. In the United States, a stronger case can be made that slavery played a critical role in economic development. Cotton, grown primarily with slave labor, provided over half of all US export earnings. By 1840, the South grew sixty percent of the world's cotton and provided about seventy percent of the cotton consumed by the British textile industry. (“Colonial Economy”). In addition, due to the South specializing in cotton production, the North developed a variety of businesses that provided services for the slave South, including textile factories, a meat processing industry, insurance companies, shippers, and cotton brokers (“Colonial Economy”). By the time the Civil War erupted, 4.9

The antebellum period occurred after the War of 1812 and before the Civil War. This was a time where America was still trying unify the people of the states and become a stronger country. With America still settling into its new form of a country, the people tried to find ways to make it feel normal again. People began to strike an interest about marriage, children, and family relations. Everyone had many different stances on whether or not having a child and starting a family was right for them or not. Along with these major responsibilities, marriage was a huge factor to be considered. The people of the United States had many different views on marriage, child birth, and ways to shape their families during the antebellum period.

Due to this, the economy of America at this period of time was centred around cotton and as Clement Eaton stated, 'After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the tempo of life in the South quickened.' The industry was able to achieve large profits through the use of slaves-the cheapest labour of all-and eventually 'Three-fourths of the world's supply of cotton came from the southern states.'

Factories in the North attracted former subsistence farmers because it was more efficient to buy food rather than to grow it. Systems like the Lowell System employed young women, provided them with room and board, and paid the women for their work in the factory. With the rise of numerous new American inventions, machines became more efficient and the United States had soon developed one of the best industrial economies in the world. Because of the need for effective transportation to distribute goods, new forms of transportation such as elaborate railroad and canal systems emerged. The south, on the other hand, clung to the slave-based plantation system. The economy was based largely on the production of raw materials, mainly cotton. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin allowed the cultivation of short staple cotton to bring Southern planters great success. Because the cotton industry was so lucrative, Southerners had no reason to become industrialized. However, the industrial economy of the North and the agrarian economy of the South led to a colonial relationship between the two, meaning that the South sold raw materials to the North in exchange for manufactured goods. The system put the South in an inferior position to the North, which obviously upset Southerners and led to greater tension between the two regions.

The Antebellum period took place from before the civil war until after the war of 1812, although some historians extend the date. This period was characterized by the rise of abolition and how prosperous and diverse the topic of slavery was.In this period, the economies the northern and southern economies were very different with the rise of cotton as a cash crop in the south and the industrial advancement in the north.

With the economic system, the south had a very hard time producing their main source “cotton and tobacco”. “Cotton became commercially significant in the 1790’s after the invention of a new cotton gin by Eli Whitney. (PG 314)” Let

The Antebellum period, meaning “pre-war” in Latin, is defined in American History as the period before the Civil War and after the War of 1812. It was marked by the rise of abolition and the steady polarization of the nation between the viewpoints of pro and anti-slavery and the people behind them. The two sides bitterly argued for their cause. Advocates of slavery included religion, economics, morals, politics, and even the Constitution to further their arguments; likewise, abolitionists used similar counterarguments and these sweeping movements fueled by persuasion became increasingly fierce and forever transformed the nation.

With Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became very profitable. This machine was able to reduce the time it took to separate seeds from the cotton. However, at the same time the increase in the number of plantations willing to move from other crops to cotton meant the greater need for a large amount of cheap labor, i.e. slaves. Thus, the southern economy became a one crop economy, depending on cotton and therefore on slavery. On the other hand, the northern economy was based more on industry than agriculture. In fact, the northern industries were purchasing the raw cotton and turning it into finished goods. This disparity between the two set up a