Cotton Industry Dbq

Before the cotton gin was invented, picking and processing cotton was a very difficult and tedious task. It would take a long ten hours for slaves to separate the seeds from the cotton fibers from only one pound of cotton(a turn of a crank). With cotton being so difficult to process, the demand for cotton was very low, wool was used instead. Also the dependency on slaves was not high either due to the lack of crops needing to be harvested. This all changed when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.

Economic and social differences between the north and the south was one of the events of slavery leading up to the Civil War. When the cotton gin was invented in 1793, cotton became a very profitable crop. Before the invention of the cotton gin, it would take one slave a day to remove the seeds from two pounds of cotton. After the invention of the cotton gin, it could be used to clean two pounds of cotton in just half an hour. With the invention of the cotton gin came an increase in the number of plantations willing and wanting to move from other crops to cotton. The south raised rice, sugar, and indigo, but cotton was its main crop. This move from other crops to cotton would cause for a greater need for a larger amount of laborers, meaning a greater need for slaves. The south, becoming a one crop economy, then became more dependent on cotton, thus more dependent on slaves. The north, on the other hand, was less focused on crops and

The experiences of female mill workers in Japan had different experiences from female mill workers in England. The industrial revolution happened in England around the 1800’s while in Japan, the industrial revolution happened around the 1900’s. There are multiple examples of difference between the different female mill workers. These can be categorized into four different groupings. These groups are Background, Salary/Wage, Gender/Age, and Working Conditions. The groups Salary/Wage, Gender/Age, and Working Conditions all show their differences. While the group of Background shows the resemblance of the two groups.

The industrial revolution is the biggest milestone of human history. Factories and machines greatly improved productivity of manufacturing. Japan and England are countries with similar geography, both being islands around the same size of the coast of large countries (doc 1). England was technologically ahead of Japan, due to Japan’s foreign policy which limited contact with other countries in order to preserve culture. The Industrial Revolution started around 1760 in England, and 1868 in Japan (background). There were now a plethora of job opportunities, with many people going to work at factories. These jobs gave little money and lasted long hours. One of the biggest industries was the textile industry; people in England and Japan both worked in this industry with many parallels. Female English and Japanese mill workers had similar experiences with their work hours, similar work conditions, and gender equality within the job.

The industrial revolution was a time of great change in Europe. Many of those changes were brought about by mechanical inventions that greatly increased efficiency by which raw materials were processed. "While working in the sciences and tinkering with mechanics, a few people were able to come up with new ways of doing things. New machines were invented" (MacroHistory and World Report) Three significant machines that were invented during this time period that greatly increased the cotton industry were the cotton gin, the spinning jenny, and the power loom. Since cotton was one of the major cash crops exported by the colonies to England, it is important to understand these inventions in order to grasp the changes brought about by this trio of machines on the cotton industry.

American textile manufactures were at an advantage compared to British manufactures, and they were very successful. America persuaded Britain to prohibit the export of textile machinery and the emigration of mechanics. Yet, still many British mechanics migrated over to the United States because they were lured by the higher wages. In competing the British mills, America had the advantage of an abundance of natural resources. America’s farmers were able to produce large amounts of cotton and wool, and they had fast flowing rivers that provided good

In addition to the plentiful raw materials that England supplied, Britain had an expanding economy to support their industrialization. With the help of Britain's stable government and new investors, factories were able to quickly adapt to newly purchased machinery. The Industrial Revolution was further spurred by a resolution of new technology. These new inventions and expansion of factories led to a rapid increase in wealth of the overall nation. Which led the decrease in prices to come from the introduction of machines. For example, the creation of the well known cotton gin, by Eli Whitney helped revolutionized the production of cotton. Before, the cotton process took a long period of time and extensive work to produce a widely traded product. Whitney’s new tecnhioldingal invention was able to show tremendous growth in efficiency. This machine helped by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. By the mid-19th century, cotton had became America’s leading export. In other words, this machine was designed to spin and weave the fabric, which helped to expand the Industrial Revolution’s productivity. This picture displays the sketches made to depict the parts of the original cotton gin. These gins were an important invention because it dramatically reduced the amount of time it took to separate cotton seeds from cotton fiber. This was one of the key

“Children worked in very dangerous conditions in the picture represent in document 8” (Document 8). The children working in the factories have to be careful not to get their limbs or foreign objects lodged into the machines. If they got injured or ill and had to miss work in order to properly recuperate. “You are considerably deformed in person as a consequence of this labor? Yes I am” (Document 7), a woman that worked in a flax mill as a young girl was left deformed from all the harsh labor that was forced upon her while growing up. Not only did the parents have to work in order to be able to provide for their family, but their children had to work in order to contribute to be able to put food on the table for the whole family due to the parents lack of pay. “Children were uneducated and were unable to attend school as seen in document 6” (Document 6). Because of the lack of education many adults were illiterate, which caused many problems for example, learning basic life skills would be more difficult and time consuming because people are unable to self-educate by reading informational books on how to acquire basic skills “I am at work in a spinning room tending four sides of warp which is one girl’s work” (Document 1) Children were over worked the girl that spoke in the text about was forced to do the work of four separation girls all in one. Furthermore is unhealthy for anyone at any age

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 Industrial Revolution occurred in Britain and America around the late 1700’s to 1900. This revolution improved the production of goods using new mechanisms and machines. Human labor was in high demand in order for the highest production rates. Factories employed low to middle-class people that were as young as three years old (Document 9). These workers were benefited with money, shelter, and clothes, but the working and living conditions were not satisfying. The average industrial worker experienced a variety of factors that can be classified as good or bad, including the positive effects of labor, like the shelter, money, and food they were given; and the negative effects of the factory,

After the invention of the cotton gin was invented, American cotton moved in ever-greater quantities to the factories of Europe. The cotton industry was among the world’s largest industries at midcentury, drawing on the labor of 20 million workers.

First, cotton help the world become more interconnected with one another. Europe’s climate was not suitable for cotton, as it was very cold and damp. This in turn led to the expansion of cotton on a global scale. Europe still needed access to this good, and with cotton being grown in other countries, such

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

Tsurumi says that only three options were given to most young women in Japan in the Meiji period: work at a textile mill, weaving house, or a house of prostitution. Tsurumi says that women in all three cases had effectively been “sold” by their parents into the workforce, and were without the ability to choose where they wished to work (Tsurumi, 187). To detail even further, Tsurumi says that girls working in any of these fields were effectively “purchased commodities” to their employers, and were treated as objects (Tsurumi, 188). This continues to support the idea that these women were victims of a society determined to society’s vulnerable populations for their labor and ignore their humanity. Despite this, the women of Japan’s textile mills worked tirelessly in harsh circumstances in an effort to support their families, and, as a result, also supported the larger local and national communities of which they were a part. In conclusion, Tsurimi says that a woman working in Japan’s textile mills “made [her contributions to the industrialized economy] for her family and herself, and not for the country or company” (Tsurumi, 198). Even if their contribution was not intentional, however, the impact the factory girls of Meiji Era Japan had on the industrialization of Japan’s economy is irrefutable, and showcases