Cotton Boom The Cotton Gin made cleaning cotton

Cotton Boom • The Cotton Gin made cleaning cotton more efficient – Designed for short-fibered cotton • One worker went from cleaning 1 lb to 50 lbs a day • Made short-fibered cotton a commercial product – Short-fibered grew all over the most of the south

After 1800, cotton rapidly emerged as the country’s most important export crop and quickly became the key to American prosperity.

Clip: Cotton Gin

Effect of the Cotton Engine (“Gin”) Cotton moved westward beyond the Atlantic Coast - into AL, MS, & eventually TX Cotton was so valuable, planters grew more of it than any other goods Cotton exports increased Growing cotton required land - Land was taken from Native Americans to be used for cotton plantations Growing cotton required a large work force = slavery

Cotton Production in the South, 1820– 1860 Cotton production expanded westward between 1820 and 1860 into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and western Tennessee forcing Native Americans off their land

Slavery in the South • Cotton production rose – 1820 = $22 million from cotton exports – Late 1830’s = close to $200 million in exports • A male field hand sold for $300 in 1790 – By 1830, he sold for $1, 000 • 1808 – Foreign slave trade made illegal – Compromise in the Constitution • Domestic Slave trade – Bought and sold in the US

Give Me Liberty!: An American History, 2 nd Edition Copyright © 2007 W. W. Norton & Company This 1860 view of New Orleans captures the size and scale of the cotton trade in the South’s largest city. More than 3, 500 steamboats arrived in New Orleans in 1860.

Because slave labor produced the cotton, increasing exports strengthened the slave system itself.

Slave Population, 1820– 1860 Slavery spread southwestward from the upper South and the eastern seaboard following the spread of cotton cultivation.

Slavery Expands • King Cotton: cotton became the world’s main crop produced by slave labor • Replaced sugar • 3/4 ths of the world’s cotton supply came from the southern U. S. • Southern cotton supplied Northern textile mills & those in Great Britain • After 1840, cotton production made the southern economy stronger & wealthier than the north economy

White Southerners • Most southern whites did not live in elegant mansions • About 1/3 of whites owned slaves in 1840 • Majority of plantation owners had fewer than 10 slaves – Yeomen • Only about 2% of blacks in the South were free – Most in Washington, D. C. or Baltimore – Some had to leave their state once freed

Southern Society in 1850 s Planter Elite 20 or more slaves Controlled social, political, and economic life in the south 4% of white pop. Middle Class 6 -19 slaves 10% of white pop. Yeomen 0 -5 slaves 50 -200 acre plantations 14% of white pop. Tenant Farmers– Had No Slaves 75% of white pop. Slaves 32% of TOTAL pop.

Planter Elite 20 or more slaves Controlled social, political, and economic life in the south 4% of white pop. Middle Class 6 -19 slaves 10% of white pop. Yeomen 0 -5 slaves 50 -200 acre plantations 14% of white pop. Tenant Farmers– Had No Slaves 75% of white pop. Slaves 32% of TOTAL pop.

Slave Life • Few comforts except the bare necessities • Laws did not protect against family separation • Extended their culture, fellowship, & community – Fused African & American elements to form new culture – Whites used religion to control slaves – By 1860, almost all enslaved were American born • Found expression through religion & “spirituals” – Songs like “Go Down Moses” & “Wade in the Water”

Clip: Slave Auction

Slave Rebellions • Slaves resisted their work in many ways - Breaking tools, working slow, feigning illness and injury, running away • Nat Turner (1830) – led 70 followers before caught & hanged • Slave codes were enforced to control enslaved people – Illegal to teach to read/write • To prevent rebellion • Some slaves did escape & make a better life for themselves

Escaping Slavery • Underground Railroad – Network of escape routes from the South to the North – Traveled through the night on foot • Harriet Tubman – Most famous conductor of the Railroad