Cotton In The South Vs South

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 North’s economy was based on textiles, shipping, and skilled trades. Their climate was not suited for the same type of agricultural products that the South produced like cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco. Northern states like New England manufactured and shipped goods like guns, clocks, plows and axes (page 399). One reason for the South’s dependence on slavery is because their economy relied on the existence of slave labor. For example, the cultivation of cotton depended largely on slave labor, with 75% of the crop grown on plantations,

In the south, for social, they still had problems with race. New laws made it hard for southern African Americans to enjoy the improvements of transportation. Politically, there were laws that allowed segregation and made it really hard for African Americans to enjoy their free life. economically, although the south remained mostly agricultural the south began to develop timber industries, also because there main source of profit was slaved, after slavery was abolished that took away a lot of the South’s major income, also iron and coal deposits in the southern Appalachian mountains gave rise to steel production in Alabama.

The North and South were very different from each other. Industrialization was happening in the North, while large-scale cotton planting was happening in the South. The South sold their crops to England in exchange for inexpensive factory-made goods produced in Europe. As a result of industrialization, Northern Factories began producing many of the goods that were already being produced in Europe. Thus, the North started to tax the South on any goods imported from Europe, so that the South would buy goods from the North. These unfair taxes angered the South, and contributed largely to its anti-North attitude (Civil War

When the war ended the South was suffering from financial problems and was still relying on “King Cotton” (Nash 426) to be its main source of income. The South was the most affected by the war ending

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

After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the economies of both Upcountry and Lowcountry became fairly equal in wealth. The Upcountry is a historical term used to describe the region in the westernmost part of South Carolina. The Lowcountry is a geographic and cultural region along South Carolina's coast. South Carolina was initially settled for its coastal access, this resulted in the Lowcountry having the greater population of the two. The Lowcountry had achieved early economic dominance over Upcountry because of the wealth derived from the cultivation of both rice and long-staple cotton. Since rice was easier to process by hand than short-staple cotton, rice became a more dependent crop. The soil in Upcountry was only suitable for the cultivation of short-staple cotton. The invention of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin encouraged cotton agronomy since it became more economically viable. The expansion of cotton cultivation lead to an increase in the labor demand, which gave rise to slave trade. The state's over-reliance on cotton in its economy emphasized the difference between the North and the South, which paved the way for South Carolina’s decision to nullify the tariffs.

Slavery was the focal point of the economy in the South, this inthrallment was the fuel for the agricultural South as well as the industrial North. Slaves would work the lands of their masters and bring in the raw materials produced, and these raw materials, commonly tobacco and cotton, would be shipped to the North and Europe. The North used the raw materials for the textile mills from the South because it made more economic sense because it cost less than the raw materials coming from Europe. Both regions became dependent upon each other, "the ruin of thousands and hundreds of thousands in the manufacturing states..." (Doc A) would occur if slavery was prevented from spreading by the Republicans. This claim being that if the North continued its free-soil mentality, it would fail as well due to a lack of raw materials caused by an insufficient amount of land for slaves and plantations; "a blow at slavery ia a blow at commerce and civilization..." (Doc R). The North was strongly tied economically to the products of slavery, the South was immensely impacted by slavery, it was the foundation and

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

For example, farming was the main source of income for the Confederate states. The main southern chief crop which came to be known as King Cotton, accounted for 57% of all U.S. exports (“Civil War”). However, in order to produce these large amounts of cotton, the southern Confederate states depended heavily on slave labor. Since cotton production began to dominate and fuel the southern economy, the South felt that they did not need to industrialize like their northern neighbors did. This caused the South to manufacture very little goods and caused them to purchase manufactured goods from the industrialized North or to purchase imported goods from overseas.

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 South expressed their pride over their cotton-based economy system. Due to the fertile lands in that region, cotton was found to be a valuable cash crop, providing more than half of the world’s production of it. Consequently, the South believed that they played an integral part of the Union. James Hammond showed how much pride he had in the Southern economy when he said, “The South is perfectly competent enough to go on, one, two, or three years, without planting a single seed of cotton. I believe that if she was to plant but half her cotton, it would be an immediate advantage to her”. Through this speech, he expressed the crop as “King”; by using this title, the Southerners portrayed cotton as the honorable and indispensable figure in their economy. It was the staple crop of the South, and without it, the region’s economy was collapse. However, the popularity of cotton production made Hammond and many other Southerners believe that the cotton-based economy would help the region stand on its own as a Confederacy. Due to the Southern pride on how indispensable the region was internationally, the South believed their exports of cotton overshadowed all other exports from America, even though some crops were more profitable than the cotton.

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.'

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

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