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
In the early nineteenth century, the United States experienced a huge overhaul. Though the reformations and Jacksonian democracy were also important, the Market Revolution managed to transform the United States on a massive scale due to the expansion of transportation, the creation of new jobs, and the newfound prevalence of slavery. Prior to the Market Revolution, transportation was an issue. Whether it was the transportation of goods, the transportation of people, or the transportation of ideas, Americans, particularly those in the North, thought the transportation was too slow and came up with ways to combat the grueling speeds. From 1800 to 1830, a road stretching from Maryland to the Mississippi River was built.
In the South, cotton plantations were the main source of revenue during the antebellum period. From Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, to the development of the sewing machine, this greatly increased the demand for cotton to be export from the South to England and New England. Plantation owners could get many acres of land for little money, especially after the 1830 Indian Removal Act. These plantations depended on a large force of slave labor to cultivate and harvest the crops of the plantations. The United States expanded south and west, and slaves not only provided labor, but they could not quite or demand higher wages. This ensured that
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.
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
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
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
The growth of the cotton industry also increased the need and want for slaves, which was a major reason for reopening the African slave trade until Congress prohibited this Atlantic trade in 1808. The labor force required by the new-found growth of cotton in the new Cotton Kingdom was supplied by the massive trading of slaves in the United
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
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.
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.
During the nineteenth century in America the issue of slavery became a huge ordeal between many groups of people. In the South this issue was more prominent than in the North due to many factors, which included the economy, way of life, and beliefs of southern whites. The need for slaves increased after the invention of the cotton gin so slaves were high in demand for processing cotton. In the South, the economical system revolved around the use of slaves due to the strong agricultural economy that had been formed. Justifications such as the use of the Gospel, and examining how slavery helped to boost the economy gave the whites all the reason more to keep slavery around. Slavery was a way of life for many generations and it had no signs of changing no matter how bad the North pushed the issue that slavery was wrong.
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 .
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.
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
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