Holt Call to Freedom
Chapter 14:
Agricultural Changes in the South
1790-1860
14.1 The Growth of Cotton
Objectives:
 Explain what happened to agriculture and
slavery in the South immediately after
the American Revolution.
 Analyze the effect of the cotton gin on
the South and slavery.
 Investigate the effects of the cotton
boom on the South’s economy.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 2
I. The South’s Agricultural Economy
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 3
A. Decline
1. Prices for cash crops declined after
the American Revolution.
2. The fall in crop prices reduced demand
for slaves in the Upper South.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 4
B. Freeing Slaves
1. Some slaveholders freed their slaves.
2. Many who did so were influenced by
the ideals of the Revolution.
3. In the North, states gradually began
to abolish slavery.
4. Some Americans predicted that slavery
would eventually die out.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 5
II. Whitney and the Cotton Gin
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 6
A. Cotton
1. Workers could easily remove seeds
from long-staple cotton.
2. But long-staple cotton only grew tall in
a few places in the South.
3. Short-staple, or green-seed, cotton
grew well across the South, but
removing its seeds was a long and
difficult process.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 7
Source: http://www.cotton.org/foundation/2004-05/projects/images/04fannreptopenfield_3.jpg
B. The Cotton Gin
1. In 1793 Eli Whitney built a machine to
remove seeds from short-staple cotton.
2. Cotton gin used a hand-cranked
cylinder with wire teeth to pull cotton
fibers apart from the seeds.
3. Revolutionized the cotton industry, and
provided a boost to southern
agriculture
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 9
Source: http://www.eliwhitney.org/img_ew/whitney2.jpg
Source: http://www.nevadamercantile.com/jparker/History%20101/Cotton%20Gin.jpg
http://www.science.siu.edu/plant-biology/PLB117/JPEGs%20CD/1189.JPG
III. The Cotton Boom
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 13
A. The Cotton Kingdom
1. By 1860 cotton made up more than
half of all American exports.
2. Most of this cotton was grown in the
cotton belt, which included land
stretching from South Carolina to
Texas.
3. Agricultural scientists produced
stronger, more disease-resistant
breeds of cotton that farmers soon
began growing.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 14
Source: http://homepage.univie.ac.at/kurt.mayer/graphics/CottonBl.jpg
Source: http://homepage.univie.ac.at/kurt.mayer/graphics/CottonBl.jpg
A. The Cotton Kingdom
4. Cotton was easy to grow, cost little to
market, could be stored for a long
time, and cost less to transport than
other crops.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 17
B. Labor
1. Growing cotton required many field
hands, as did some other southern cash
crops such as Louisiana sugarcane.
2. Plantation owners used slave labor
rather than pay free workers.
3. The United States had banned the
importation of slaves in 1808, but the
domestic slave trade increased as the
demand for slave labor rose in the
South.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 18
Source: http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t001/T001568D.jpg
B. Labor
4. Slaveholders in the Upper South sold
slaves to planters in states farther
south.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 20
Slaves in Cotton Field
An illustration depicts slaves working in a southern cotton field. After the Civil War the most important
issue to white slaveholders was that many of their best cotton fields lay in disrepair and their cotton field
labor had been emancipated.
Courtesy of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries
Source: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/media_content/m-3347.jpg
14.2 The Southern Economy
Objectives:
 Describe how trade affected the
southern economy.
 Determine why crops other than cotton
were important to the southern economy.
 Identify the kinds of factories that
were located in the South.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 23
I. The Cotton Trade
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 24
A. King Cotton
1. Many southerners thought that cotton
was essential to the world’s economy.
2. Southerners sold tons of cotton to
Great Britain and to northeastern
textile mills.
3. Increased cotton trade led to the
growth of southern port cities, such as
Charleston, South Carolina, and New
Orleans, Louisiana.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 25
B. Factors
1. Crop brokers called factors managed
the cotton trade.
2. Arranged loans for cotton farmers to
buy supplies
3. Arranged transport of cotton from
southern port cities to markets
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 26
C. Shipping Cotton
1. Most southern farmers used rivers to
ship cotton to port cities.
2. Overland shipping was difficult because
the South had few roads and canals
and few miles of railroads.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 27
II. Agricultural Diversity
Cotton
Corn
Sugarcane
Wheat
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 28
Rice
A. New Methods
1. Scientific agriculture – the use of
scientific methods to improve farming
2. Use of fertilizers and crop rotation
maintained soil fertility
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 29
B. New Crops
1. Some southerners worried about the
South’s dependence on cotton.
2. Argued that overproduction was driving
down cotton prices
3. Southern farmers also grew corn, rice,
sugarcane, and wheat as food crops
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 30
Source: http://xinsheng.net/xs/articles/gb/2004/2/24/25875.htm
B. New Crops
4. Jean Étienne Boré invented a new
system for processing sugar in 1795.
5. Louisiana became the center of the
sugar industry in the United States.
6. Other southern crops included tobacco,
hemp, and flax.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 32
Source: http://www.engelfriet.net/Alie/Marieke/aline.htm
III. Southern Factories
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 34
III. Southern Factories
A. Southern industries, such as lumbering,
served the needs of southern farmers.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 35
III. Southern Factories
B. Most early southern factories
processed crops.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 36
C. Manufacturing
1. Joseph R. Anderson manufactured iron
products at the Tredegar Iron Works
in Richmond, Virginia.
2. By 1860 the Tredegar Iron Works was
one of the nation’s most productive iron
works.
3. Most southerners preferred to invest in
land and slaves to grow cash crops
instead of investing in industry.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 37
Source: http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/tred.jpg
C. Manufacturing
4. As a result, the South’s industrial
growth lagged behind that of the
North.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 39
14.3 Southern Society
Objectives:
 Describe what life was like for southern
planters and owners of small farms.
 Analyze what the urban South was like.
 Examine the challenges free African
Americans faced in the South.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 40
I. The Planters
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 41
A. Slave Ownership
1. About one third of white southern
families had slaves in the first half of
the 1800s.
2. Even fewer southern families owned
plantations
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 42
B. Planters’ Lives
1. Planters exercised control over
southern politics and the economy.
2. Men usually focused on raising crops
and supervising slaves.
3. Women usually ran the household and
supervised domestic slaves; women also
usually handled the family’s social
responsibilities.
4. Many marriages were arranged to gain
business advantages.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 43
II. Southern Society and Culture
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 44
A. Small Farmers
1. Yeomen – owners of small farms – made
up the majority of southern farmers.
2. Typically held few if any slaves; farms
averaged about 100 acres
3. Yeomen who held slaves often worked
side by side with them in the fields.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 45
II. Southern Society and Culture
B. Less than 10 percent of white
southerners owned no land
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 46
C. Culture
1. Religion was central to southern life.
2. Some wealthy southerners used religion
to justify the institution of slavery.
3. Most southern writers greatly
romanticized southern culture and
plantation life.
4. In the mid-1800s some southern
writers, including Samuel Clemens, or
Mark Twain, provided a more balanced
view of southern society.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 47
Source: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/marktwain/mark_twain.jpg
III. The Urban South
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 49
A. Southern Cities
1. City governments provided public water
systems and maintained streets.
2. Some cities also provided public
education.
3. Charities helped fund services such as
orphanages and public libraries.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 50
B. Slaves in the Cities
1. Worked in mills, in shipyards, as
domestic servants, and at skilled jobs
2. Many business leaders held slaves or
hired them from nearby plantations.
3. Urban white southerners more likely to
hold slaves than rural white
southerners.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 51
IV. Free African Americans
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 52
IV. Free African Americans
A. In 1860 more than half of all free
African Americans lived in the South.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 53
B. Earning a Living
1. Many free African Americans worked
as skilled artisans in urban areas.
2. Those living in rural areas often hired
out their services to plantations.
3. A few free African Americans became
financially successful.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 54
C. Society
1. Churches served as the center of social
life for free African Americans.
2. Free African Americans faced constant
discrimination.
3. Many southern cities and states passed
laws denying free African Americans
the right to vote, travel freely, or
hold certain jobs.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 55
14.4 The Slave System
Objectives:
 Explain what work and daily life were
like for most slaves.
 Describe how slaves used family, religion
and other aspects of their culture to
help them cope with the slave system.
 Identify ways that enslaved African
Americans challenged the slave system.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 56
I. Slaves and Work
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 57
A. Hard Work
1. Most slaveholders tried to get as much
work as possible out of slaves.
2. Slaves on small farms performed a
variety of tasks.
3. On large plantations, most slaves
performed specific tasks.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 58
A. Hard Work
4. The majority of slaves did field work.
5. Drivers, who were sometimes slaves,
made certain that slaves worked and
followed orders and carried out
punishment for slaves who did not.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 59
B. Gang Labor
1. Most plantations used the gang labor
system, in which all workers performed
the same task at the same time.
2. Usually worked from sunup to sundown
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 60
I. Slaves and Work
C. Domestic slaves often received better
food and clothing than field hands but
also worked longer hours.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 61
I. Slaves and Work
D. At times, slaves with skills such as
blacksmithing were allowed to hire out
their services, and some skilled slaves
earned enough money to buy their
freedom.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 62
II. Life under Slavery
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 63
II. Life under Slavery
A. Slaveholders tended to view slaves as
property, not as people.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 64
B. Life’s Necessities
1. Slaves often tried to improve the poor
clothing and small cabins they were
given.
2. When allowed, many slaves
supplemented their food rations by
growing vegetables, raising chickens,
gathering berries, or fishing.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 65
C. Incentives to Work
1. Some planters offered better food or
shelter to encourage slaves to follow
rules.
2. Other planters used harsh punishments.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 66
II. Life under Slavery
D. Many states had strict slave codes to
control slaves and limit their actions.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 67
III. Slave Culture
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 68
In 1763, two British astronomers, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, were hired to resolve a dispute between the Calvert family, who owned the
colony of Maryland, and the Penn family, who owned the colony of Pennsylvania, over their respective boundary. In 1767, the Mason-Dixon line
divided Maryland from Pennsylvania and Delaware to the satisfaction of all concerned.
Pennsylvania and neighboring New Jersey, thanks in large part to their Quaker citizenry, had all but abolished slavery. Maryland and Delaware
were the most northern of the slave-owning states. Thus, the Mason-Dixon Line has come to represent the boundary between the Free States of the
Northern Nation and the Slave States of the Southern Nation
.
www.nevadamercantile.com/. ../Section%2016A.htm
A. Family Life
1. Slaves built their own communities and
culture.
2. Family was the central institution of
slave life.
3. Enslaved parents passed down family
histories and used folktales, or stories
with a moral, to teach children how to
survive life as a slave.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 70
B. Religion
1. Many slaves accepted Christianity,
which offered a message of equality.
2. Spirituals, emotional Christian songs
that blended African and European
music, were expressions of slaves’
religious beliefs.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 71
IV. Challenging Slavery
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 72
IV. Challenging Slavery
A. Slaves rebelled in small ways, such as
running away for a few days.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 73
B. Nat Turner’s Rebellion
1. Violent slave rebellions were rare,
although white southerners feared
them.
2. Nat Turner, a Virginia slave, led a
violent slave revolt in 1831.
3. In Nat Turner’s Rebellion, a group of
slaves killed about 60 white people.
4. The rebellion failed, Turner was
executed, and states enacted stricter
slave codes.
© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 74
The massacre during Nat Turner's Rebellion
CREDIT: "Horrid Massacre in Virginia." Woodcut. . Illustration in Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical
Scene Which Was Witnessed in Southampton County. 1831.
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
Source: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/assets/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_stono_2_e.jpg