South Economy Vs Agrarian Society

As the North economy increases, the south economy grew a bit but stayed as an agrarian society. Agrarian society is any society that consist on producing and maintaining crops and farmland. Agriculture still dominated the south as farmers were dependent on cash crops and slave labor, without slaves the farming business would run out of money. In the agrarian society, the main cash crop wasn’t tobacco anymore but rather it was the cultivation of short-staple cotton grown in the lower south or southwest. This is significant because Tobacco was always the leading product in the South. Due to the number of slaves, the south focused on the plantation system as it spread from Southeast to Southwest, from South Carolina through the Deep South and

However, wheat and corn industry had a dedicated substantial acreage. It was the cheapest way to supply food locally and corn was major food source for the South’s livestock. In terms of cotton, planters coming into a fresh territory would purchase the best land suitable for their crops however, the costs for smaller farmers who paid more for poorer land rose due to the value of the cotton. Slave labor plantations were so big that the smaller farms could not compete with them and reduced on the local Planter. The bigger the plantation, more revenue and demand increases. Even though cotton was bringing in insanely amounts of money, white southerners did not improve the quality of life or the economy. The major reason for this was the invention of the King Cotton. Growth of cotton and decline of Tobacco made a shift of economic power that was from the Southeast to the Southwest. This also made slavery increase even more. Eli Whitney invented the cotton engine in 1793. Whitney was born in Massachusetts to a middle-class family that were farmers. At first, his family had enough money to send him to college, but he wanted to work his earning to pay for his college. He did this by tutoring children of Plantation owners. At this time, it was not uncommon for planters to hire tutors. Whitney was introduced to Mrs. Nathanael Greene, she was a widow of a Revolutionary

Back in the day, a slave would clean only a pound of cotton. Britain was in high demand for raw cotton because it needed it in the textile mills. Planters made a fortune taking advantage of this as they were able to buy more slaves and more land. Cotton Gin increased the production of cotton very fast compared to slaves picking the cotton. Britain was so high in demand for cotton that in 1790 only three thousand bales been produced then in 1820 there were almost three hundred thirty-five bales produced at a fast rate. In 1840, it was 1.4 million and then in 1860 it grew to 4.8 million