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Impacts of cotton and cotton gin in USA economy
Cotton gins impact on history
How has the cotton gin changed lives economically, socially, and culturally
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The amount of labor and time required to pick the cotton was causing it to be unprofitable, and southern farmers need another way to
Senator James Henry Hammond delivered a speech to reflect on the hard work slaves and slaveholders they have done which was beneficial to countries in Europe. Their increasingly amount of cotton was very serviceable and that it should be credited to all the slaves and to the slaveholder who helped other country save a lot of money on cotton and giving the last of the money to charity. “That cotton, but for the bursting of your speculative bubbles in the North, which produced the whole of this convulsion, would have brought us $100,000,000. We have sold it for $65,000,000 and saved you. Thirty-five million dollars we, the slaveholders of the South, have put into the charity box for your magnificent financiers, your "cotton lords," your "merchant princes."
Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America, by Angela Lakwete, brings to light the idea that Eli Whitney did not actually invent the cotton gin. Lakwete exemplifies a vast amount of evidence proving the cotton gin dates back in time even before recorded history, or documentation. Through her persuasive approach and infinite amount of evidence, she proves to readers cotton gins were being used “since the first century of the Common Era.” The cotton gin has it's own history, it's own evolution, featuring different types of designs across the globe. Her writing includes a flow of background information and a better understanding of how different gins worked.
The invention of the cotton gin created a market for cotton that the planters could hardly supply without cheap labor. Almost every available acre was brought under cotton culture as the small farmers were driven into the West. The demand for slaves to work the fields was enormous. This led to the development of the plantation system of the Far South and Southwest, where masters were near constantly extending their holdings of lands and slaves. Efforts to form new slave states were common, most prominent of these efforts was that to annex Texas.
Due to increased productivity, cotton became a cash crop in the South
Finally, the invention of the cotton gin in the south really helped a lot and it provided half of the wealth for a merchant, middle-class families, and elite.
In Virginia, people mostly focused on growing of staples and exotic crops for cash. The crops that they grew in their colony were rice, indigo, and tobacco. But in Virginia, tobacco was the crop that they focused on, in fact, tobacco was the first most famous staple crop grown and became their economic foundation. As far as working in the fields, Virginia started off with indentured servants to perform the labor, but as they became expensive they shifted to purchasing slaves. Mortality rates were higher because of diseases that many of them came in contact with, men were expected to live to forty and women weren’t expected to live past their thirties.
Between 1800 and 1850, the North and South had grown distinctively different, but they also had some similarities. Some of the differences & similarities between the North and South included the economy, social attitudes & structures, and daily life. The North and the South had farmers and everyone including children worked on the family farms. As time went by, the North became more industrialized and manufacturing became the center point of their economy rather than agriculture. Factories popped up all along the east coast and the inland waterways.
Agriculture dominated the south with its ability to produce exceptional wealth for plantation owners. However, they were in need of labor and so they “made all men their slaves in hopes of recompenses.” (Doc. F) Many Englishmen brought over indentured servants from Europe who served as the foundation of the labor force for plantations. Soon enough, ¾ of the population in the south colonies were made of indentured servants.
Eli Whitney invented The Cotton Gin in 1794. The purpose of this invention was to speeding up the elimination of seeds from the cotton fiber and as a result, an increase in the production of cotton. The South and their economy benefited a lot from The Cotton Gin. This invention increased the problems between the North and the South.
In the south, the warm, humid climate and southern, fertile soil allowed colonists to grow sugar cane, rice, as cash crops. The south was able to grow many crops and foods the middle colonies, northern colonies, and even many European countries could not produce. Even though large farming fields were a typical setting in the south, slave plantations quickly dominated the southern economy. “Profit-hungry settlers often planted tobacco to sell before they planted corn to eat” (Kennedy, 61). This quote and the 40 million pounds of tobacco annually exported during the 1630’s exemplified the desire and economic opportunity the south possessed.
Throughout history, people have been inventing things to make their lives easier. That drive has produced huge changes in the American life several times over. In the 1700’s, life in America was very difficult. Transportation infrastructure was lacking, which pushed the delivery of goods to be almost exclusively down rivers. Military technology was roughly unchanged since America began, leaving the country open to attack from other nations.
No matter your stance at the time, one thing became clear: socially, politically and economically, slavery was the fabric of American success and gave birth to the Old South as we know it today. At the center of the entire institution of slavery, and central to its defense, was the economic domination it provided a young country in international markets. In the early 19th century, cotton was a popular commodity and overtook sugar as the main crop produced by slave labor. The production of cotton became the nation’s top priority; America supplied ¾ of the cotton supply to the entire world.
For example, small farmers depended on the local plantation aristocracy for access to cotton gins, markets for their modest crops and their livestock, and credit or other financial assistance in time of need. The great cotton economy allowed many small farmers to improve their economic fortunes. Some bought more land, some became slave owners, and some moved into the fringes of plantation society. A typical white southerner was a yeoman farmer, who was also known as “plain folk.” These farmers owned a few slaves, with whom they worked and lived more closely than the larger planters.
Imagine if the cotton businesses had no slaves the Southerners would have to create their own factories, for example, if they did have to create their own industry, they would have to sell all their slaves and that’s one of the last things that they wanted to do. If the South had no slaves, they would have to do everything all by themselves. According to page 242 it says " planters would have had to sell slaves to raise the money to build factories, most wealthy southerners had their wealth invested in land and slaves. Planters would have had to sell slaves to raise the money to build factories. Most wealthy southerners were unwilling to do this.
