The Cotton Boom

The Cotton Boom, 1830-1861

• massive growth, part of the broader Market Revolution
• by 1850, US produced 2 billion pounds of cotton per year (over 60% of all exports)
• key to southern and northern economies
• made slavery more profitable and more brutal

Origins of the Cotton Boom

• industrial textile mills in northeastern US and Britain
  • huge international market
• trans-atlantic credit system
• steamboat transportation
• additional land:
  • LA purchase (1803)
  • Eastern Indian Removal (1830-42)
  • colonization of Texas (1820-45)
• the cotton gin
• short-staple cotton strains

The Domestic Slave Trade

• cotton industry led to a huge demand for enslaved labor
• filled via the “internal” or “domestic” slave trade
• 1790-1860, about 1 million enslaved people were sold or relocated
• from “upper” to “lower” south