Arkansas Cotton Culture

Arkansas has one of the most rich historical backgrounds that still has not been fully discovered. There have been huge impacts made in Arkansas since 1819, when Arkansas became part of the Union. One of the major impacts that was made in Arkansas was the institution of slavery. When slavery was introduced to Arkansas, it caused major growth to the population, economy, politics and the culture of the state. For these reasons, the history of Arkansas needs more attention so there will be a full understanding of slavery.

In the South, it was very well known for slaves to be working in plantation fields. The often would work cultivating cotton, tobacco, and sugar. Tobacco was a very popular cash crop, but died out due to the harsh conditions it would give the soil. Moreover, southern states were referred to as Cotton Kingdom. The reason being is because in the southern states, cotton was the major cash crop they grew. In addition, more than 50% of the cotton was grown in the south. Additionally, the culture in the South was quite different compared to the slaves that were in the North. The southern slave states culture was determined by plantation owners and families. The slaves were not authorized to be educated, and only the plantation owners had the right to be educated. They were not allowed to attend school and their culture revolved around the plantations. To add in, their economy revolved around the agricultural plantations. The southern grew cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar cane, and indigo. Many of

Southern culture in the 1930’s had very specific customs on everyday life. The article “Life In The Plantation South”. Said that most southerners didn't experience much weath. The fortunate few were call the tidewater aristocrats. They were the fortunate few who lived in stately plantation manors with hundreds of servants and slaves. Besides the lucky few, the rest lived off of little and had a rough life. So in the south there was a huge contrast between rich and poor. In the video “Souther Culture Of The 1930’s” In the south there

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

Cotton is one of the oldest crops grown in Texas; by 1880, Texas led the nation in its production. Cotton farming also increased tenant farming and sharecropping.

During the 1820s, there were over 1.5 million slaves in the United States and it continued to grow to 2 million in the 1830s (Foner, Give Me Liberty 398). Slave trade was also thriving and many of the presidents were slave holders (Cotsirilos). Even though some people agreed with the abolitionists that slavery is immoral, they did not view African-Americans as equal. The majority of the population viewed African-Americans as inferior to them and believed the latter do not deserve the same rights as whites (Foner, Give Me Liberty 406). During the period where the majority

What the newly freed slaves did not realize is that landowners would always have them in debt. With this new system, economic independence blew away with the wind. Sharecropping was when a farmer rented from a landowner and promised to give a percentage of their crop to the landowner every season. Sharecropping dominated the South because the landowners didn't have to worry about feeding workers or caring for them. Sharecropping was very profitable for the landowners. Landowners had a very tight leash on the tenets. Sharecropping locked farmers into the cycle of poverty. No matter how hard they tried they never seem to get out of

The lack of rights that the slaves had prior to the Civil War was none whatsoever. They were property to be sold and bartered to the highest bidder. The slaves lived, ate, and worked solely for their owner, also known as their master. At the time of

Slaves performed many different services, they worked in homes, factories and helped even as skilled laborers but their most common work was in the fields, “Slaves grew a variety of crops including rice, sugar, and tobacco, but the “white gold,” cotton was central to the southern and national economies” (Foner 598-600). Cotton slowly grew into a major US export, with its exportation swelling from only a few thousand bales in the late 1700s to five million bales before the start of the Civil War (Foner 587). With the cotton crop at the time rising to unprecedented levels, not only nationally but also globally, this put extra emphasis and value on the slaves shouldering the vast workload of this economy. “By 1860 the economic value of property in slaves amounted to more than the sum of all the money invested in railroads, banks, and factories in the United States” ( Foner 595). There was so much money and business invested, tied into and benefitting from the exploitation of the free labor of these slaves. Southern Planters had major political pull and a significant portion of this country’s wealth, “Planters dominated the antebellum southern society and politics and exerted enormous influence in National affairs as well. The wealthiest Americans before the Civil War were planters in the South Carolina low country (where rice was the principal crop) and the Mississippi Valley cotton region around Natchez” (Foner 621). I believe that with all the money, power and land that was reliant on the work of the slaves there was no way these southerners were just going to give that up without a

The southern region of the United States was supportive of the institution of slavery for a variety of reasons. The biggest contributor to southern support of slavery was the dependance of southern economy on the cultivation of cotton, a valuable cash crop. Southern economy depended on the cultivation of cotton, and profitable cultivation of cotton depended on slave labor. Cotton was so valuable to southern economy that the crop was commonly referred to as "King Cotton". The importance of cotton and its dependance on slave labor can be portrayed by the image entitled "Harvesting Cotton" which portrays a typical southern plantation with a number of black slaves tending to cotton plants. The historical context of this image is the cotton boom, which was when cotton began to take off as a staple cash crop in the Unites States, especially in the south. This image helps to explain the role that slavery had in the success of cotton as a cash crop and the cotton boom. Slaves were used in cotton fields to tend to the cotton crops and to harvest cotton fibers. For this reason, the south remained dependent on and supportive

In the 1840’s, the United States began to produce approximately two-thirds of the world’s cotton. Cotton was largely grown in the south because of the better climate and soil conditions for large plantations. However, the North’s climate was much better suited for an

By 1791, the U.S. was the largest producer of raw material in the world. In the South, cotton was the main exported crop, which of course led to an increasing demand for both slaves and land. But because of this,

Before the Civil War began, the United States had two distinct economies. Although farming was a staple throughout the United States, from an economic standpoint the Northern and Southern farmers were fundamentally diverse from each other. Unfree labor and staple crops were an essential part of Southern life. While their counterparts to the North comprised of an economy that contained finance, a wide range of industries, and commerce; wage earners and small business owners. The Civil War drastically changed this way of life for both the North and South. The South after the war was left in decimated, while the Northern economy boomed. Southern farmers between 1859-1860 were harvesting a record number of cotton crops. Cotton was America’s most

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

     After the invention of the cotton gin, the production of unprocessed cotton doubled each decade after 1800. Other inventions of the Industrial Revolution were the machines to spin and weave cotton and the steamboat to transport it. America was growing three quarters of the world's supply of cotton in the mid-century. Most of it was shipped to England or New England where it was made into cloth. During this time, tobacco’s value decreased, rice exports stayed at the same price, and sugar began to flourish, but only