The Cotton Frontier Thesis

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,

The economies of the North and South were vastly different leading up to the Civil War. Money was equivalent to power in both regions. For the North, the economy was based on industry as they were more modern and self-aware. They realized that industrialization was progress and it could help rid the country of slave labor as it was wrong. The North’s population had a class system but citizens could move within the system, provided they made the money that would allow them to move up in class. The class system was not as rigid as it was in the South. By comparison, the South wanted to hold on to its economic policy. In doing so, the practice of slavery kept the social order firmly in place. The economic factors, social issues and a growing

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 South’s addiction to slavery in the early 1800’s would lead to great impacts on the region, as well as the nations. Slaveries economic blessing came at the price of the nation’s

The South, on the other hand, was highly dependent upon the institution of slavery. It was still primarily an agricultural society that needed as many laborers as possible in order for the plantation owners to make ends meet. According to historian Douglas Harper, “In 1793 came the cotton gin, which brought a 50-fold increase in the average daily output of short-staple cotton, promoted the rapid expansion of a ‘cotton kingdom’ across the Deep South, and made large-scale slavery profitable.” Because of this, the slave became an essential tool to the farmers of the south; more money became invested in slavery rather than in industrial improvements. Based upon the 1860 U.S. Census, there were almost a whopping total of four million slaves in the South alone. In fact, the more slaves an owner had, the more prestige. “Most slave owners owned fewer than five slaves, and only 12 percent of Southerners had twenty or more slaves. Many whites who had no slaves looked with envy upon the wealthy, and to a degree admired them.” This hierarchy had a clearly defined social structure which created distinctions between rich and poor whites as well as racial segregation. This agricultural society and its strict hierarchy only increased the social and racial disparities found in the southern region of the United States.

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

The harsh treatment placed upon slaves, contributed to the decrease of development, exposed to poor conditions that fueled working resistance. Along with the immoral practice, Genovese reiterates that soil exhaustion is crucial, limiting crop diversification, and that due to the lack of skills their source labor possessed, adopting advanced farming techniques could be rather costly. Since the South failed to consider as industrialism as a possible solution to their issues and the idea of achieve agricultural reform was completely delusional, the economy plummeted. This problem called for change, but the South was not willing to take the risk of improving their productivity and output if it meant sacrificing their power structure. The South wanted to keep their classes as they were, with the slave holders at the top of the pyramid and the slaves at the bottom. Slavery shape their civilization, so when they were asked to transform and submit to the North’s social system and structure, implied by the laws which prevented Slavery to continue, the South viewed their cry for independence as rational to keep their society

And its abolitionist and free thinking.Meanwhile, the south’s colony is characterized by the controversy of slavery and the cash crops they produced

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

In chapter 11, the main idea of this chapter is modernization. The South was an old-fashioned region, but they arose during the years leading up to 1840. It changed rapidly since the war of 1812. While Great Britain and the American East overturned the economics, America was creating a new kind of economy and society. The effective production of cotton by the new reorganized South was a fundamental aspect of the emerging national market economy.

Edward Pessen argues that the North and South were similar but fundamentally different. They were similar in most of the aspects of common life such as; economy, social structure, and politics. The North and South were both centered around agriculture. The Northern farms were centered around grains and corn, while the southern farms were centered around tobacco, rice, sugar and cotton. The goal for the North and South was to be self-sufficient, and have influence and power. In the North, the wealth came from industry, but in the South, there was a lot of slave wealth. This could be connected to Ulrich B. Phillips’ definition of “planters”. Phillips argued that because 10% of the slave-owners had twenty or more slaves (Pessen, 1132).

The South was viewed by many in the United States and elsewhere as a robust, self-sufficient economy (Surdam, 2001, p. 1). It produced much of the world's supply of cotton and Texans bragged that their cattle could feed the world. What the South lacked in manufacturing was compensated for by the immense wealth produced from raw cotton, cattle, and corn exports. Obviously, the predictions that the South could survive a war with the North due to its economic self-sufficiency were wrong. This essay analyzes the possible reasons for the failure of the Confederacy to win the Civil War.

The economy of the South depended primarily on slaves. Its settlers had plantations of cotton, which was very profitable at that time, but they needed a cheap labour force to work their lands (slaves). Living in the South meant either having a lot of money to invest on lands (for crop plantations) or working in the only available jobs, which were done by slaves. Since not everyone was able to afford high

Technology influenced the southern states as well yet in a different direction. Machine tools with stronger metals and motorized components allowed for increased labor. Slavery was declining as advancements in harvesting machinery spread through farm owner’s