During the 1800-1860s, three main factors influenced cotton production to grow. The three factors were technology, resources, and demand.
One of the factors that influenced the cotton production was technology. There was three inventions that helped the production of cotton. The first invention was the cotton gin by Eli Whitney. The cotton gin was a machine that was able to take off seeds much faster than hands. (Davidson 388). It was able to speed up the process of cleaning cotton, so planters were able to produce more than before. Secondly, the telegraph. Invented by Samuel Morse, it allowed communication over long distances (Davidson 378). It impacted the cotton production because businesses were able to know places that need cotton, and meet the demand. Lastly, clipper ships. Clipper ships, invented by John Griffiths, were known to clip through water at a high speed. The clipper ships impacted the cotton production because now with the clipper ships, cotton was
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There are three types of resources, natural, human, and capital. The most essential natural resource was soil, to plant cotton. Planters later noticed that soil wore out year after year. This caused planters to move to the west in order to grow more cotton, and cotton farms expanded from South Carolina to Texas (Davidson 388). Second, human resources. As cotton farms grew, slavery also increased. Although machines helped speeding up the process of developing thread, cotton still needed to get picked up by hands. Slaves worked on the farms and picked up cotton, which only benefited planters (History Learning Site). Human resources affected the growth of cotton by allowing planters to make more money, and produce more cotton. The third resources is capital. Capital resources was mostly money. Capital resources impacted the cotton production because money was able to buy more land for growing cotton, slaves for labor, and