The Importance of Cotton

• By the early 1800s, the American South had developed a niche in the European market for “luxurious” long-staple cotton grown exclusively on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida

  • American and global cotton markets changed forever after Rush Nutt of Rodney, Mississippi, developed a hybrid strain of cotton in 1833 that he named Petit Gulf

    • Petit Gulf slid through the cotton gin—a machine developed by Eli Whitney in 1794 for deseeding cotton—more easily than any other strain

    • It also grew more tightly and produced more cotton than any other strain

• The explosion of available land in the fertile Cotton Belt brought new life to the South

  • Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, the federal government implemented several forced migrations of Native Americans, establishing a system of reservations west of the Mississippi River on which all eastern peoples were required to relocate and settle

    • This allowed the federal government to survey, divide, and auction off millions of acres of land for however much money bidders were willing to pay

  • By the end of the 1830s, Petit Gulf cotton had been perfected, distributed, and planted throughout the region

Cotton and Slavery

• The rise of cotton and the resulting upsurge in the United States’ global position wed the South to slavery

  • Without slavery, there could be no Cotton Kingdom, no massive production of raw materials stretching across thousands of acres worth millions of dollars

  • The existence of slavery and its importance to the southern economy became the defining factor in what would be known as the Slave South

  • Although slavery arrived in the Americas before cotton became profitable, the use and purchase of enslaved laborers were justified and protected by the success of the Cotton Kingdom

• Perhaps the most important aspect of southern slavery during this so-called Cotton Revolution was the value placed on both the work and the bodies of the enslaved themselves

• The key is that cotton and enslaved labor helped define each other, at least in the South

  • By the 1850s, slavery and cotton had become so intertwined that the very idea of change—be it crop diversity, antislavery ideologies, economic diversification, or the increasingly staggering cost of purchasing and maintaining enslaved laborers—became poison to the southern economic and cultural identity

  • Cotton had become the foundation of the southern economy, and as a result, southern planters, politicians, merchants, and traders became more and more dedicated—some would say “obsessed”—to the means of its production: slavery

    • There was great fear of rebellion

The South and the City

• As late as the 1820s, southern life was predicated on a rural lifestyle—farming, laboring, acquiring land and enslaved laborers, and producing whatever that land and those enslaved laborers could produce

• The rise of cotton benefited from a change in transportation technology that aided and guided the growth of southern cotton into one of the world’s leading commodities

  • The explosion of steam power changed the face of the South, and indeed the nation as a whole

    • The South’s rivers, lakes, and bays were no longer barriers and hindrances to commerce

Southern Cultures

• The South, more than perhaps any other region in the United States, had a great diversity of cultures and situations

  • Enslaved people made up 45% of the population, and developed a culture all of their own

    • The creation of family units, distant relations, and communal traditions allowed enslaved people to maintain religious beliefs, ancient ancestral traditions, and even names passed down from generation to generation in a way that challenged enslavement

    • But, this came with their own unique challenges

      • As the internal slave trade increased following the constitutional ban on slave importation in 1808 and the rise of cotton in the 1830s and 1840s, enslaved families, especially those established prior to arriving in the United States, came under increased threat

      • Threats to family networks, marriages, and household stability did not stop with the death of an enslaver

Religion and Honor in the Slave South

• Economic growth, violence, and exploitation coexisted and mutually reinforced evangelical Christianity in the South

• Southern ministers contended that God himself had selected Africans for bondage but also considered the evangelization of enslaved people to be one of their greatest callings

• Enslaved people most commonly received Christian instruction from white preachers or enslavers, whose religious message typically stressed the subservience of enslaved people

  • Many enslaved people chose to create and practice their own versions of Christianity, one that typically incorporated aspects of traditional African religions with limited input from the white community