Cotton From 1850-1860

The industrial revolution during the 19th Century led to the rapid expanse of cotton production in America. Several new inventions began to be used which could more efficiently use cotton and other similar materials to aid in the production of textiles. During that time, the textile industry was big and the demand for cotton continued to grow however the price of cotton never increased to match the demand. Slaves were taken advantage of and because their labor was so cheap it was beneficial to slave owners to collect cotton using slave labor and trade the cotton for a profit. Great Britain was the worlds most powerful country and a large part of that countries industrial life was cotton textiles. America became Britain’s biggest trade partner for cotton and the increase in trade allowed America to build on its own and gain a bigger variety of goods through trade. The cotton industry was one of the biggest influences of America’s growth in the 19th Century and slave labor was used to ensure its expansion could continue throughout the years.

The earliest factories in England came up by the 1730s and, with the technology enabled production processes like carding, twisting, spinning and rolling became faster and easier consequentially, between 1760 and 1787 raw cotton imports to British cotton industry rose from 2.5 million pounds to 22 million pounds. On the contrary, the traditional market of cotton cloth from India witnessed a steady decline from 30 per cent around 1800 to 15 per cent by 1815 and to 3 percent in 1870s. While exports of cloth declined rapidly, export of raw materials increased equally fast. Between 1812 and 1871, the share of raw cotton exports rose from 5 per cent to 35 per cent. This was not something triggered by the industrial revolution but the protectionist measures of the British t which imposed tariffs on cloth imports. The creation of cotton mill by Richard Arkwright brought processes under one roof and management, allowing better supervision, quality control, and the regulation of labour. Thus not only the trade the way business of production was handled also underwent a quantum change.

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

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

Great post. The invention of the cotton gin immensely changed the American economy. Southern cotton farmers planted larger crops, while Northern textile factories grew up to take advantage of the sudden cheapness of cotton. By 1860, the American South provided roughly two-thirds of the cotton sold worldwide, shipping it from its flourishing ports such as New Orleans and Charleston. However, in order to harvest and process those crops, Southerners needed more workers. The population of enslaved workers increased by 1850, and a higher ratio worked in the cotton fields than ever before. By the time of the Civil War, the invention of the cotton gin had led to an American South heavily dependent upon slavery for its

The growth of the cotton industry impacted America economically and socially. “The domestic slave trade exploded, providing economic opportunities for whites involved in many aspects of the trade and increasing the possibility of

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.'

The Northeast created factories to speed up the output of cotton goods and other goods. The biggest growth of factories was in the textile industry. More factories were made in order to keep up with demand. The factories also became more efficient with the use of machinery to speed up the making of cotton goods. With machinery doing much of the work, things become much faster and cost efficient for manufacturers. This dropped the prices of goods allowing for a larger profit margin. The larger profit margin allowed those who sold textiles to make more money. This also allowed many merchants a chance to sell their goods elsewhere at a lower cost as well. With the growth of machinery and the need for more people to help move and ship goods, wage workers became a popular idea among the working class. Wage workers were paid by the hour, instead of other methods of payment. Once the textiles were done they would be sent many places, but most of them were sent to the South as the slave population needed clothing as well. This allowed more slaves to be brought to the

During this time period in the U.S. History cotton became the biggest agricultural product in the world. The states that produced it where able to pour out loads and

The cause of the growth of the Cotton Kingdom was the early industrial revolution. The new aspect of cotton associated with the early industrial revolution was producing cotton textiles with water-powered spinning and weaving machinery. The demand of cotton was immense, yet the production of cotton was slowed by the task of removing the seeds after picking the plant. Eli Whitney changed the outlook on cotton production in 1793 with his invention of the cotton gin, which used rollers and brushes to quickly separate the seeds from the cotton. The rising demand of cotton and the new lands in the West created opportunities for the planters to monopolize the land that they wanted.

After the invention of the cotton gin, the yield of raw cotton doubled each decade after 1800. Demand was fueled by other inventions of the Industrial Revolution, such as the machines to spin and weave it and the steamboat to transport it. By mid-century America was growing three-quarters of the world's supply of cotton, most

     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

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

As World War II began to come to an end, the United States cotton industry started to become more anxious about what the future would entail for them. With scientific and technological advances on the rise, it would allow more logical and systematic farming and with that, came the increase of productivity at a much more rapid pace. These changes led the U.S. cotton industry to anticipate the downfall of world markets while synthetic fibers such as acrylic, nylon, polyester, and spandex gained more popularity. Such developments harbored national implications because not only did the one and a half million growers across the Cotton Belt produce the country’s most significant commercial crop, but cotton farming in general was the southern way