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