How Did Technological Advances In The Antebellum Period Influence Development Of Agriculture?

*How did technological advancements in the antebellum period influence development of agriculture? How and why did these developments increase the differences between the North and South? There were many technological advancements during the antebellum period. Some of them would greatly influence agriculture. They would change agriculture forever. The ways of harvesting crops would change drastically. In some ways it was a wonderful thing, but in other unforeseen ways it was awful.

In the Midwest, the farmers were harvesting wheat. They used a sickle that was hard on the body, and was very time consuming. The wheat that was cut down had to be picked up and trussed by hand. In 1834, a man named Cyrus McCormick, invented a horse drawn

The seeds, then had to be picked out by hand as well. This process was extremely time consuming. In 1793, a man named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. This greatly sped up the process of harvesting the cotton.

The cotton gin reduced the need for slaves to pick the seeds out of the cotton by hand. However, it did not decrease the need for slaves to grow and pick the cotton. The gin made growing cotton extremely profitable in the South. Thus, increasing the need for slaves. There were six slave states in 1790, and by 1850 there were 15. The increase of slave usage put an even bigger rift between the North and South. Agricultural advances changed things in major ways. They made harvesting crops faster and more efficient. They also change slave labor. It seemed that using the cotton gin would lessen the need for slaves. However, the opposite is true. Slave labor was sought out more so after the invention. Sometimes there are unforeseen side effects of great inventions. It does not mean that the invention was bad. It means that the people did not use like the inventor had

Technology was improving, with the telegraph, the railroad, and advances in gun manufacturing. There were advances in agriculture, such as John Deere’s new steel tipped plow. They also started building houses with bricks. Furniture was now being mass produced and was cheaper. Everything seemed to be improving, but their health was not improving. They were still susceptible to the many diseases of the time. There were many epidemics in the antebellum period. Smallpox was one of these epidemics. It would have been much worse if they had not come up with a vaccine in the 1720s. Yellow fever was much worse than small pox. It rapidly swept through cities and thousands of residents fled. In the 1830s another epidemic appeared, cholera. It spread quickly through towns, and also caused people to flee. 3,000 people died in New York, and 5,000 people in New Orleans. Diphtheria killed thousands as well, many of them children. During the antebellum period it was not yet known that microorganisms were the cause of the outbreaks. The people did not understand that poor hygiene was the cause of the epidemic. They did, however, begin to try and keep the streets and the cities cleaner, but were not sure it would help. The people started to distrust doctors and would flee the city in hopes of outrunning the epidemics. It did not always work and they would catch it