The South As Defined By The Crops Grown Within The Plantation System

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 lower south during the rise of King Cotton and the sugar plantations, including the

Both areas had many farmers, but the south was successful with big plantations. The southern economy depended on agriculture while the North was based on technological advancement. The North successful developed many industries, while the south improved their farming methods (Roark, 7). The south farmers established huge plantations for cash crop production especially cotton. In addition, slavery became an important factor that provided

Introducing cash crops such as tobacco, sugar, and rice was a pivotal time for the Chesapeake and South Carolina societies. The environment was a big factor on what each colony could grow, and this helped assist in the boom in several cash crops. Such as, the Chesapeake society relied on tobacco because it could grow so well in the environment. The desire for tobacco made it easy to trade because of the coast. Indeed, this changed the colonies drastically but it wouldn’t have been the same without European help. Europeans played a big part in the introduction to cash crops in the south. Powerful countries like England started to have limited resources, so they began to exploit the colonies for their resources. The climate in Chesapeake

Many fields are flooded in order to cultivate enough rice for England and the colony. Freshwater swamps are not the only means by which rice can be produced. A number of the chief rice fields are situated along the tidal rivers and inlets. Dikes and floodgates are used to regulate the amount of water supplied to the field according to whether it is low tide or high tide. The same process is reversed when water needs to be drained from the fields (Garraty, 51). People of Africa's Rice Coast taught this technique to the settlers. A large portion of the population is made up of people from the rice-producing regions of Africa. The economy is reliant upon enslaved Africans. Not only is the role of slave labor significant in the rice culture, but also in the production of indigo. Eliza Lucas introduced the second cash crop, indigo. Although indigo increases the revenue of the colony immensely, it cannot compete with rice for either land or labor. It prospers on high ground and needs cultivation in the seasons slaves are not preoccupied in the rice paddies. This is a valuable asset for England, to have a new source of indigo, for it has a quintessential function in the textile industry. Parliament has already reaped the benefits of their bounty and should continue to fund the production of indigo. South Carolina has established a solid economy in the manufacturing of tobacco, indigo, and rice, along with

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

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.

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 antebellum era (also referred to as the plantation era) between 1800’s to 1860 was a period of slave driven farming, marking the economic growth of the south. During this period in 1815, cotton was the most valuable traded produce in the United States and by 1840, it was more valuable compared to all other imported and exported goods combined. In 1860, one year before the Civil War, the South was predominantly reliant on the sale of agricultural products, such as tobacco, rice, sugar, and cotton estimated at 5,344,000 bales, to a worldwide market. while the southern states generated two-thirds of the world's cotton supply, the South had little industrial capability (manufactured good estimated to the value of$156,000,000), consisting of an estimated 29 percent of the railroad tracks or 14484.1km, and only 13 percent of the nation's banks. The South attempted slave labour in manufacturing, but were mainly content with their agricultural economy. Their delay in industrial expansion was not the result of any integral economic disadvantages, there was a vast amount of wealth in the South, but it was mainly bound to slave labour. In 1860, the financial value of slaves in the United States surpassed the participated value of all of the land's railroads, factories, and banks combined. the day before the Civil War, the value of cotton was at its peak, the Confederate aristocrats were confident that the significance of cotton on the world market, especially in England and France,

“The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South” by John W. Blassingame is the first book about slavery written by a historian in the viewpoint of slaves rather than slave owners. This book analyzes the experience of slaves in the South during misjudgement and confusion. Blassingame targets the different aspects that have influenced the slaves life and the way they lived it. Blassingame writes this book to encounter you in feeling the pain of the slaves but also how they had their own traditions and culture while enslaved.

Tobacco became the largest cash crop for the Chesapeake and southern colonies. Tobacco resulted in great wealth for the regions that it was grown. As agriculture became more important in the South; the need for workers became more important, also. Labor shortages were temporarily solved by indentured servants, but the indentured servants weren’t enough. Growers turned to African slaves to meet their need for labor. The slaves impacted the agricultural techniques as well as the social aspects of the Southern society. The presence of slaves created a gap in the economy between the rich and poor farmers in the Chesapeake, with the rich farmers leading the social and political

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

During the Antebellum Era, the North and South had developed many differences, a lot of which were due to their geography. In the South, soil was rich and the climate was great for farming and planting, which caused longer growing seasons. In the North, the climate was cold, and the soil was rocky and wasn’t very suitable for farming or planting, which caused shorter growing seasons. Both the North and South had lots of farmers, but the South was more successful. Their success mainly came from small, independent farms, but they also got success from large plantations. Eventually, the South’s economy began to revolve around farming, while the North’s started to become more technologically advanced. The North began to industrialize and the South

“Between 1680 and 1750, the southern white tidewater settlements changed from a frontier society with high immigration, a surplus of males, and an unstable social organization to a settled society mostly of native-born families” (Nash, p. 99). African slaves grew tobacco and rice, as well as a rapid population growth in the southern colonies because of migration. They replaced indentured servants by African slaves and the unfree labor force was black. They shifted fields from grain, hemp, and flax to cattle and swine. They soon became more productive with iron, leather, and textiles in both economic and social reasons. They all had several differences. The rice coast transformed their land into swampy coastal lowlands around Charleston. Rice

In the South the climate was warm and it rained more making the soil fertile for growing crops. Therefore, many of the people lived on farms and agriculture became a vital part of the South. Crops such as cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar cane, and indigo was sold as cash crops. Cotton was the most important crop after the cotton gin was invented and slaves became in high demand. Southern land owners bought African American as slaves to work on their field because they wanted to have workers but did not want to pay them.