The history of cotton cultivation and production to cottons part in society now. Tyler Riviere
4 April, 2016
The evolutionary history of cotton played an important role in the heritage of the British Empire, the United States(U.S.), and India. Cotton continues to be an important crop and commodity throughout society. The history of Cotton is one of the most important factors to our society currently. Cotton cultivation dates back over 7,000 years, seeds of cotton are found all over the world. Cotton is hugely important throughout the world, making cotton useful to make a number of textile products. Since cotton is used and produced on such a widespread industry, cotton’s largest producers are China and India. However; the largest exporters of raw cotton are the United States and Africa. The advancement in cotton textile industries, and the worldwide vast cultivation of the crop is the product of human demand towards the farming, production, and export of cotton.
The global cotton industry is distinguished by its abundant industrial uses of cotton plume, which is the fiber within the cotton used to create products, along with the high production costs that come along with it. “Extreme vegetative growth can hinder destructively with productivity of the cotton plant. Why it makes applying growth regulators an essential for healthy develop6ment in the cotton culture” (Vitor 2015). Cotton cultivation dates back over 7,000 years ago and with high demand. Scientist over the past
During the time of the Civil War, there were slaves working on farmers, these slaves were not compensated for their labor and services and were producing cotton for a little to nothing cost. Since the Civil War, America has produced an immense amount of cotton and would export it to different parts of the world. America has also had enough workers to meet the exact supply and demand, which follows the demand policy. Correspondingly, the manifest destiny caused for cotton growers further west. Due to the cotton growers going further out west, cotton became easier to grow and easier to protect. These technological advancements simplified the process by which people were able to grow cotton and export it to China for the workers to create these shirts. There are now many subsidiary industries to cotton; industries are always producing new clothes every day. Due to this
Cotton, first domesticated in 2300-1760 B.C.E had been domesticated and heavily cultivated and manufactured into textiles for export (dying techniques had become prominent as
labor” (Foner, 393). Cotton not only became the most profitable crop for the Southern farmers,
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.
There was no money crop whatsoever; the only variety of cotton that would grow in that region was the practically useless green seed variety. Ten hours of manual work was needed to separate one point of lint from three pounds of the small tough seeds. Until some kind of machine could be built to do the work, the green seed cotton was little better than a weed.
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 such a unique nation where the average person is family oriented and running a family owned farm and/or business their was bound to be room for change. In 1793 Samuel Slater, a born European created the first cotton spinning factory in Pawtuckett. This is said to be one of the many things that sparked Industrial Development in America. This project alone sparked the need for more cotton to be produced at a faster rate which brought upon the creation of the cotton gin. New growth in any field brings more than what meets the eye. The cotton gin producing more cotton made it neccassary for a new form aof transport to be developed. Shortly after the country started to adapt textile mills started to pop up
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.
Southerner farmers had previously attempted to grow cotton, some the American society desperately lacked, and however these farmers soon gave up and decide to focus on producing rice and tobacco crops. Cotton had proved to be far too intense labor and was extremely inefficient. It would take one slave a whole workday to separate only one pound of cottonseed from the fibers of the plant. So when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which was able to separate the seeds from the fibers with ease, it allowed slaves to produce upwards of fifty pounds of cotton in a workday. This invention revolutionized the cotton industry, the southerners were producing and the crop and harvesting so that the northerners could manufacture cotton
In the past decade, eyewitness testimonies have cast a shadow on what is wrong with the justice system in today’s society. Before we had the advanced technology, we have today, eyewitness testimonies were solid cold-hard facts when it came to proving the defendant was guilty. However, time has changed and eyewitness testimonies have proven to be the leading causes of wrongful convictions due to misidentification. The Thompson and Cotton case is a perfect example of how eyewitness testimonies can put an innocent man behind bars.
Rivoli’s also writes about the U.S’s dominance in the cotton industry and that by practicing the above, the U.S. took over the market and dominated the competition. Of course they did, the other countries like India and Africa for instance, were still working their farms the old fashioned way, by themselves, and paying for any needed labor – or in some cases, all their family members helped bring in the crops. However, because of their practices, they could produce and harvest nearly as much cotton as the U.S. due to their use of slaves, then advanced machinery, chemicals, and even genetically manufactured seed and of course with subsides from the government later on. I wonder how the U.S. would be regarded around the world now, if it had not been for the dominance in the cotton industry thanks to the
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
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