The Cotton Revolution was a changing time for America. However, it brought far more than cotton. It brought western expansion, industrialization, a transformation of economy, and the rise of the abolitionist movement. It also brought a change in the family dynamic, the removal of Indians from their native lands, and a rise in slavery like never before. The cotton revolution brought class conflict, child labor, accelerated immigration. (American Yawp) It’s impossible to discuss the Cotton Revolution without shedding light on the accompanying Transportation Revolution. Following the War of 1812, Americans rushed to build new national infrastructure including roads canals and railroads. By 1850, Americans laid more than 30,000 miles of railroads. …show more content…
The rise of cotton benefited from a change in transportation technology that aided and guided the growth of southern cotton into one of the world’s leading commodities (American Yawp). The eventual commercialization of the West became the catalyst for Eastern manufacturing, increasing demand as a result of being able to ship goods in territories they were unable to previously (Migrating North Powerpoint). Further, the planting of cotton in the south also began to grow weary on the soil. This called for the need for new land which led to Western expansion. However, the idea of expanding West came at a cost to the Indians, fueling the Indian Removal Act. This removal laid in the belief that Americans could best use new lands and …show more content…
While the participation in the global slave trade was ruled unconstitutional, over 1,000,000 slaves from the tobacco-producing Upper South to cotton fields in Lower South between 1790 and 1860, (American Yawp). This came from the shift in Southerners point of view from “Slavery is a necessary evil,” to “Slavery is a positive good.” The rise of Cotton wed the South to slavery, without it there could be no cotton kingdom. Although northerners were involved first handedly with slavery, their factories fueled the demand for slave-grown southern cotton and their banks provided the financing, (Cotton Revolution, American Yawp). Despite the ban on slave trade, the number of slaves in the South increased by 750,000 in 20 years (Old South Powerpoint). Many replaced the famous “Cotton Belt” to “Black belt” not to describe the rice color of the land but the people that worked on that
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
In “The Changes Wrought by Cotton, Transportation, and Communication” by Daniel Waker Howe, the author discusses how the decades following the War of 1812 were marked by a, “communication revolution” (232) that led to an expansion in transportation, communication, press, and the market economy.
Slave system changes that occurred between 1800 and 1860, the crop was due to the industrial revolution. Philadelphia Constitution enacted after the meeting, the Southern states were given the freedom to decide on the legality of slavery. At this point, cotton production was very low and the country had around 700,000 slaves. The amount of cotton increased significantly; south produced by 1840, and to give a strong economic area, more than two-thirds of the export side of the world. White farmers are looking for new slaves in the upper southern region starts; the domestic slave trade between 1800 and 1860 is emerging as important commercial enterprises that operate through the system: One is the coast and the other is inland. Coastal sent
Cotton was a huge thing for african american that were slaved . Cotton made slavery worse they made more money . More cotton meant more slaves .They need slaves to keep up with the cotton. Also before gin was invented cotton was not a money making crop . Because of how hard it was to remove the seed . And what was worse is that it did not make money. They even needed more slaves to increase the ability of gin. They raised like 700,000. Slaves per year the slaves went up . What was sad is that they split families up , they would get separated . Kids were born to be sold to other plantations .
As early as the 1700 's slaves were common in the United States; they usually worked as farm hands in order to grow tobacco and indigo. But they were not present in huge numbers before the 1790 's, and there was even a trend towards states banning or limiting the slave trade before that time. ‘What happened during the 1790 's?’ you ask. Well, as the United States grew westwards the cultivation of cotton, a valuable but labor intensive plant, grew as well. There was an enormous demand for cotton by textile manufacturers in Europe, due to a recent invention that allowed mass production. Cotton was previously a very difficult crop to profit from, because of the long hours required to separate cotton seeds from the actual cotton fibers. This
Many men and woman were desperately needed to work on the land. The slave’s owners where white bond servants paying their passage across the ocean from Europe through indentured labor, eased but did not solve any of their problems. Slaves were mainly economical on large farms where they labored intensive cash crops, including tobacco, cotton, rice, sugar, and many other farming products that were able to be traded and exported. By the end of the American Revolution, slavery was finally proven unprofitable in the North, so it started dying out. In the South the institution was becoming less and less useful to farmers as tobacco prices fluctuated and began to drop rapidly. That’s is when the cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney, which “created the growth of southern slavery again and was the central place of cotton in the world economy” (class notes). The cotton replaced the tobacco leading to the South’s main cash crop and slavery became profitable again. That made the international slave trade rise. Although, majority of the Southerners did not own any slaves at all. But, by 1860 the South’s abnormality institution was impossible to separate from the regions economy.
As the North became more industrialized and the existence of slavery became a vital economic resource to the South, slavery became a moral, economic and political issue in the United States. With the creation of the Cotton Gin, there have been an increased demand for slaves and resulted in the Cotton Boom. As decades passed, slavery has been integrated into the nation’s economy, primarily the Southern States. Slaves were responsible for running the plantations and growing the South’s cash crops such
It is easy to see that slavery affected the agriculture in the United Sates, and how the labor of slaves was important to the growing crop of the Unites States, especially the South. The South was notorious for its vigorous production of tobacco, rice, sugar and cotton, as well as other world agriculture as well. Although the population of the south was a mere 30% the size of the north, in 1861 they grew more than one third of the corn, one sixth the wheat, four fifths the peas and beans and over half of the tobacco in the United Sates. That amount of production in the South was phenomenal, which made it simple to overlook the labor that they used. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation revolutionizing the country, the economy of the South remained stunted and the emancipated slaves were unable to fain economic freedom.
Cotton became one of, if not the most, profitable crop to grow. Along with the cotton gin’s invention, mass-production became easily accessible, however it required immense labor to achieve it, which of course, was completed by slave labor. This connection is likely the very reason that slavery became such a prominent issue. Before the creation of the cotton gin, rice and tobacco were the staple crops of the region. Many believe that if not for the rapid expansion of the cotton industry, the need for slave labor would have never grown to the level it did, and, at the very least, conflict between the North and South may have never
As America was rapidly industrializing, the products that were being mass-produced were in demand all over the nation. In order to get food, supplies and raw materials to the industrial centers that needed them, it was crucial that the speed of transportation was increased. Multiple types of transportation came forth in early 1800’s including roads, canals, steamboats and railroads which would all contribute to the industrialization of America. This time period would come to be known as the “Transportation Revolution” of America. (Ochoa 2). In 1815, farmers were struggling to keep up with the high cost of transportation of their goods. Near the end of the Transportation Revolution in 1850, transportation cuts had been cut by ninety-five
Many items came from the south such as cotton, sugar, and rice. Because of the high need for these cash crops, slave labor was used. As stated above, the development of the cotton gin “transformed the south and condemned millions of African Americans to slavery”. (Faragher 202)The south relied on the slave labor for their economy as the more slaves the south had, the more crops could be tended to, and ultimately sold to the North. Slavery was essential to the south's economy, and even though the North was against slavery, clearly the North relied on slavery to expedite their need of materials. The Southerners invested in the slave labor instead of the factories and machines like the North. The Southerners were content with buying land, having a small farm and a few
The transportation revolution contributed in many ways to the development of a national market economy in the United States. With the United States expanding farmers needed a way to ship and trade goods in a faster more affordable way. Interior roads such as rail roads and toll roads were to expensive. For transporters water transportation was better, it provided easy access to different areas of the country and was more affordable. The Canal Boom and the Erie Canal were by far the best form of transportation created, they both allowed easy access to port side cities and also lowered the cost of not only shipping but also products and goods.
Therefore, the population of slaves started to grow again in the 1790s and spread into other lands that became the cotton belt (Clifford, 2005). At round 1793, cotton cultivation expanded into large scale as a result of the invention of gin. The slaves in the southern states were used as laborers in spite of the American Revolution’s natural rights philosophy (Clifford, 2005). According to Clifford (2005), the slave owners started to improve the lives of their slaves on the cotton plantations after a
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
The course of history would be forever changed from the time period of 1750 to 1840. Throughout this time many changes in technology, changed the way americans lived their day to day life.All of these revolutionary changes that impacted millions of people 's lives are thanks to the industrial revolution. This enormous movement known as the industrial revolution first started out in Great Britain later on spreading to the western world in the following decade. The Industrial revolution is considered a great change in human history due to the many positives it has brung to the western society in particular. For example these changes include the exchange of manual labor for factories, changes such as these helped the American society thrive