Samuel Slater's Views Of The Industrial Revolution

In contrast to the many economical differences of the industrial north and agrarian south, few similarities arise in the struggle of sectionalism. Both the societies consisted of utilization of trade, westward expansion, and the use of unskilled labor. The north's industrial businesses such as textile industries demanded the south's production of cotton in order to maintain its market with oversees buyers. Also, the fight for westward land was among the many conflicts between the north and the south. And the use of unskilled labor was highly shared between these two economies. In the south, the use of untrained African slaves was its main entity to economic success. Like the south, the north used amateur workers in its industries to boost its production.

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 Antebellum period in the United States history was considered as time between 1820 and 1862. During this period, significant changes took place in terms of political, social and economic effects in America. The United States economy was changed from an underdeveloped country of frontiersmen and farmers into an industrialized economy. The South American depended on agriculture while the Northern part had many industries. The two parts differed in terms of slavery policies in the country as the south advocated for preservation of slaves while the North championed abolition of slavery policies. In addition, during this period the south and North had established distinct cultures because of their geographical difference (Mitchell, 8). The south had fertile soils and suitable climate that supported agriculture while the north had cold climate and rocky soils that could hardly support any farming.

Throughout the 19th century, the distinctions between the North and South in the United States were controversial. Prior to the Civil War, the North consisted of business owners and middle-class men. The South consisted of mostly farmers. The North was industrial, using railroads and factories. The South was agricultural, with mostly farms and plantations. The North paid their labor workers. The South used slaves. Not only did their opposing views on slavery and the separation of the two cultures, tensions arose that eventually led to one of the most gruesome wars in history.

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.

Southern economy was the center of plantation that cultivated cotton. Many the rich started to carve the plantation to earn money by exporting cotton. They needed a lot of labor and slavery was proper to use. The majority of white southerners did not own slaves because planters monopolized the best land. They could not help taking possession of the land that was not proper to cultivate cotton. Most of them earned a living by self-sufficiency even though the slave population was growing: from 697,624 in 1790 to 3,953,760 in 1860.

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 South expressed their pride over their cotton-based economy system. Due to the fertile lands in that region, cotton was found to be a valuable cash crop, providing more than half of the world’s production of it. Consequently, the South believed that they played an integral part of the Union. James Hammond showed how much pride he had in the Southern economy when he said, “The South is perfectly competent enough to go on, one, two, or three years, without planting a single seed of cotton. I believe that if she was to plant but half her cotton, it would be an immediate advantage to her”. Through this speech, he expressed the crop as “King”; by using this title, the Southerners portrayed cotton as the honorable and indispensable figure in their economy. It was the staple crop of the South, and without it, the region’s economy was collapse. However, the popularity of cotton production made Hammond and many other Southerners believe that the cotton-based economy would help the region stand on its own as a Confederacy. Due to the Southern pride on how indispensable the region was internationally, the South believed their exports of cotton overshadowed all other exports from America, even though some crops were more profitable than the cotton.

Due to this, the economy of America at this period of time was centred around cotton and as Clement Eaton stated, 'After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the tempo of life in the South quickened.' The industry was able to achieve large profits through the use of slaves-the cheapest labour of all-and eventually 'Three-fourths of the world's supply of cotton came from the southern states.'

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

The Slaveholders had their slaves doing their dirty work for them such as, maintaining the farms, picking cotton, etc. Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and this made it a lot easier for the slaves to pick cotton, which became the principle export commodity of the United States. According to the article, Southern Society and the Defense of Slavery the cotton gin made the aggressive use of slave labor economically dominant. In the North slavery wasn’t as dominate as it was in the South. “Slavery was an institution established and regulated in detail by law.

The South, on the other hand, had very little capability to manufacture. They depended on agriculture and staple crops. Henry Louis Jr., a college professor and director at Harvard University, said, “Cotton was one of the world’s first luxury commodities, after sugar and tobacco, and also the commodity whose production most dramatically turned millions of black human beings in the United States themselves into commodities.” After the invention of the cotton gin, the more hands that were being used meant the more money the South could make thus causing the South to depend on its slaves and cotton

During the Antebellum period, the North and South were divided into two sections. The North opposed slavery while the South believed that it ultimately benefitted society, creating conflicting views on many different issues. The issues that were brought about during the antebellum period between the North and the South were centered around what type of societies slavery created. Although the North and South had some similarities during the antebellum period, the North and South were consistently more different in many aspects.

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