Cotton, Slavery, and Regional Development (Antebellum America) (copy)

Cotton and the Industrial Revolution

• Cotton cloth was the most important industrial product of the 19th century

• Great Britain was the world’s leading manufacturer

  • ~20% of British population depended on cotton

• American South supplied most of the raw cotton

• By 1830s, cotton exports earned the U.S. more money than all other exports combined

• By 1860, the South produced over 50% of the world’s cotton

• Phrase used by Southerners: “Cotton is King”

Conditions That Increased Cotton Production

• Rising British and American demand

• Technological innovations:

  • Cotton gin

  • Advances in spinning, weaving, steam power

• Availability of fertile land in the South

• Expansion of slave labor

U.S. Cotton Production Levels

• 1791: 2 million pounds

• 1801: 48 million pounds

• 1860: 1,650 million pounds

Major Cotton-Producing States (Pre-1860)

• Georgia

• Alabama

• Mississippi

• Louisiana

Regional Economic Differences

The South

• Focused on agriculture, especially cotton

• Depended on slave labor

• Capital invested in:

  • Land

  • Slaves

• Neglected:

  • Industry

  • Cities

  • Railroads

  • Education

  • Immigration

• Wealth concentrated among planter elite

The North

• Diversified economy

• Industrial development

• Urbanization

• Transportation and communication growth

• Immigration surge (especially Irish after 1845)

• By 1860:

  • 36% urban population (vs. 7% in the South)

The West (Old Northwest / Upper Midwest)

• Nation’s breadbasket

• Commercial agriculture

• Population growth:

  • 1800: 1%

  • 1860: ~25%

Cotton Gin and Eli Whitney

• Before 1793:

  • Short-staple cotton was unprofitable

  • One slave could clean only 1 pound/day

• Cotton gin (1793):

  • Made short-staple cotton profitable

  • Sparked massive cotton expansion

• Whitney failed to profit from his invention

• Later contributions:

  • Interchangeable parts

  • Milling machines

  • Advanced Northern industrialization

Slavery and the Cotton Economy

Expansion of Slavery

• Cotton made slavery more valuable, not obsolete

• Slave prices increased

• Internal slave trade replaced Atlantic trade after 1808

• Over 800,000 enslaved people sold south and west (1800–1860)

• Known as the Second Middle Passage

Slave Population

• 13% of U.S. population

• 33% of Southern population

• Balanced gender ratio

• Population grew naturally

Plantation Society and Class Structure

Planter Elite

• Fewer than 2,000 families owned 100+ slaves

• Controlled politics and society

• Wealth tied to land, slaves, cotton

Slave Ownership Statistics

• 75% of white Southerners owned no slaves

• Majority of slaveholders owned fewer than 5 slaves

• Large slaveholders were rare but owned most slaves

Life Under Slavery

• Lifelong labor starting in childhood

• High infant mortality

• Average slave life expectancy under 50

• Work systems:

  • Task system: less supervision, some free time

  • Gang system: constant supervision, harsh conditions

Resistance to Slavery

• Daily resistance:

  • Slowing work

  • Running away

• Major rebellions:

  • Gabriel Prosser (1800)

  • Denmark Vesey (1822)

  • Nat Turner (1831)

• Slave narratives:

  • Frederick Douglass

  • Harriet Jacobs

Plantation Legend (Myth vs Reality)

Myth

• Aristocratic planters

• Happy slaves

• Leisurely southern life

Reality

• South was diverse and complex

• Many regions unsuitable for plantations

• Most whites were farmers, not aristocrats

• Most slaveholders lived modestly

• Women faced heavy burdens and isolation

Southern Economy: Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

• Generated enormous wealth

• Produced:

  • 60% of world cotton

  • Over half of U.S. export earnings

• Financed Northern industrial growth

Weaknesses

• Slavery hindered:

  • Industrialization

  • Urban growth

  • Transportation

  • Education

• High debt

• Soil exhaustion

• Technological stagnation

• High illiteracy rates

Southern Nationalism

• Developed after 1830

• Slavery defended as a “positive good”

• Increasingly racial justifications

• Fear of abolition and Northern capitalism

• Calls for:

  • Economic independence

  • Southern schools, churches, literature

• Extreme efforts:

  • Filibustering expeditions

  • Attempts to expand slavery abroad

Missouri Compromise (1820)

• Missouri admitted as a slave state

• Maine admitted as a free state

• Slavery banned north of Missouri’s southern border in Louisiana Purchase territory

• Preserved balance in the Senate

• Temporary solution:

  • Lasted 34 years

  • Did not resolve sectional tensions

Big Picture Takeaways

• Cotton linked the Southern economy to slavery

• North and South developed distinct economic systems

• Slavery created wealth but long-term stagnation in the South

• Sectional differences laid groundwork for Civil War