Chapter 13, Section
1
Growth of the Cotton Industry
Reviving the South’s Economy

Prior to the Revolutionary War, 3 crops
dominated Southern agriculture
 Rice
 Tobacco
 Indigo

Southern agriculture depended on the labor of
enslaved Africans
 Slavery
was a dominant factor in the Southern
economy
Reviving the Southern Economy

After the American Revolution, prices for
tobacco, rice, and indigo fell
 As
crop prices decreased, the demand for
and price of slaves also decreased

Farmers tried to grow other crops with little
success
Cotton Becomes Profitable



Cotton had been grown in the Western
hemisphere for centuries but had not been a
very profitable crop
Long staple cotton was fairly easy to process but
could only be grown in a few places in the South
Short staple (also called green-seed) cotton was
difficult to process but easier to grow
Cotton Becomes Profitable

Demand for cotton increased in the 1790’s
 Textile
factories of Great Britain needed raw
cotton for making cloth
 American cotton producers could not keep up

Needed a machine that could process the cotton
more efficiently
Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin

Eli Whitney
 Northerner
 Invented




the cotton gin
Machine that removed seeds from short-staple cotton
Wanted to keep design a secret
Revolutionized the cotton industry
Planters built cotton gins that could process
tons of cotton very quickly
 Large
scale farmers who held more than 20 slaves
The Cotton Boom
The cotton gin made cotton very profitable
 The removal of Native Americans opened
up more land
 New types of cotton plants were
developed
 Cotton Belt

 Area
of high cotton production
The Cotton Belt States
The Cotton Boom
Production of cotton increased rapidly
 Economic boom attracted new settlers
 Wealthy white southerners became even
wealthier
 The institution of slavery firmly put into
place in the South

 The
entire Southern economy relied almost
solely on slave labor
The Cotton Belt

Cotton had many advantages as a cash
crop
 Cost
little to market due to high demand
 Long storage life
 Light weight made for easy transportation

Farmers wanting to grow cotton headed
west seeking land
The Cotton Belt

Cotton had one disadvantage: it rapidly
used up soil nutrients
 After
a few years, cotton could make the land
useless for growing anything
 Agricultural scientists recommended crop
rotation to keep land fertile longer
The Cotton Belt

As the Cotton Belt grew, farmers
continued to try to improve the crop
 Crossbred
short-staple cotton with other
varieties
 Resulted in new, stronger types of cotton
 The cotton belt industry expanded thought the
1860’s
The Cotton Belt

The Cotton Boom involved much more
than growing and harvesting cotton
 Cotton
had to be ginned, pressed into bales,
shipped to market or warehouse
 Special agents helped market cotton and
insure cotton

Factories were built to produce items
needed by cotton farmers
The Cotton Belt



Growing and harvesting cotton required many
field hands and the demand for slave labor
increased as the cotton belt expanded
Congress had banned the importation of slaves
in 1808
Growing demand for slaves led to an increase in
the slave trade within the United States
Cotton Trade


Cotton was declared “King” by South Carolina politician
James Henry Hammond
Cotton boom made the South a major player in global
trade



Great Britain became the South’s most valued foreign trading
partner
Cotton also valuable to the United States’ growing textile industry
Increased trade let to the growth of major port cities in
the South



New Orleans, LA
Charleston, SC
Savannah, GA
Cotton Trade

Factors
 Crop brokers who managed the cotton trade
 Farmers sold cotton crops to merchants
 Merchants made deals with the factors


Merchants and factors also made loans
arrangements for farmers who needed to
purchase supplies
Once farmers got their cotton to the port cities,
factors arranged transportation aboard trading
ships
Cotton Trade

It was very difficult for farmers to get their
cotton to port cities by land
 Few

good roads in the South
Most Southern farmers had to ship their
goods on the regions rivers
 On
the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, farmers
relied on flatboats and steamboats
Other Crops and Industries

Some leaders worried that the South was
too dependent on cotton
 Wanted
Southern farmers to try a variety of
cash crops
Food and Cash Crops



Corn was the primary Southern food crop
Other successful foods included rice, sweet
potatoes, wheat, and sugarcane
Tobacco was the South’s first major cash crop
 Very
time consuming to process tobacco
 A slave discovered a faster curing process in 1839
which improved and increased tobacco production
Food and Cash Crops

Hemp and flax also became major cash
crops
 Fibers

used to make rope and sackcloth
Used rope and sackcloth to bundle cotton into
bales
Industry
Many of the South’s first factories were
built to serve farmers’ needs by processing
crops such as sugarcane
 First steam powered sawmill was built in
Donaldsville, LA
 1840’s: Southern investors promoted
cotton mills

 Most
were small
Industry
Some Southerners encouraged industrial
growth
 Tredegar Iron Works

 One
of the most productive iron works in the
nation

Industry still remained a small part of the
Southern economy
 Faced
difficult competition from the North
Chapter 13, Section
2
Southern Society
Southern Society

Reality
 During
the first half of the 1800s, only 1/3 of white
southern families owned slaves
 Fewer than 1/3 of white southern families had
plantations

Despite small numbers, these white southern
slave & plantation owners had a powerful
influence over the South
 Many were political leaders
 Led a diverse society including yeomen farmers, poor whites,
slaves, and free African Americans
Planters

Wealthiest members of Southern society who greatly
influenced the Southern economy




Male planters concerned with raising crops and
supervising slave labor
Wives ran the plantation households



Some lived in beautiful mansions
Others lived more simply, saving their money to purchase more
land and more slaves
Also raised children and supervised house slave labor
Social duties of hosting dinners, barbeques, and dances
Slave women cooked, cleaned, and helped care for the
planter’s children
Yeomen and Poor Whites

Yeomen
 Small
farm owners
 Owned few slaves or none at all
 Took great pride in their work
 All family members worked long days at many tasks

Poor Whites
 Lived
on land that could not grow cash crops
 Survived by hunting, fishing, raising small gardens,
and doing odd jobs for money
Religion and Society



Most white southerners shared similar religious
beliefs
Because of long distances between farms, most
neighbors only saw each other at church events
Wealthy white southerners believed that religion
justified slavery
 Argued
that God created people like themselves to
rule over others
 Opposed many Northern Christians’ belief that God
was against slavery
Urban Life

Largest southern cities were located along the
Atlantic Coast
 Similar


Public Water systems
Well-maintained streets
 Public


to Northern cities
education was available in a few places
Southern urban leaders wanted their cities to
appear as modern as possible
Slaves did much of the work in Southern cities
Free African Americans and
Discrimination

While the majority of African Americans in
the south were enslaved, more than
250,000 lived in the south by 1860
 Some
descendents of freed African slaves
 Some descendents of refugees from the
Haitian Revolution
 Some run-aways
 Some had earned enough money to buy their
freedom
Free African Americans and
Discrimination

Free African Americans lived in both rural and
urban areas
 Most
lived in the countryside and worked as paid
laborers on plantations and farms
 In cities, free African Americans worked a variety of
jobs

Free African Americans faced constant
discrimination from white southerners
 Many
governments passed laws limiting the rights of
free African Americans

 In
Most could not vote, travel freely, or hold certain jobs
some places, free African Americans had to have a
white person represent them in any business
transaction
Free African Americans and
Discrimination
Many white southerners argued that free
African Americans could not take care of
themselves and used this argument to
justify slavery
 White southerners were very threatened
by the very existence of free African
Americans

 Threat
to the institution of slavery
Chapter 13, Section
3
The Slave System
Slaves and Work





Most enslaved Africans lived in rural areas
where they worked on farms and plantations
Most slaves on small farms did a variety of jobs
On large plantations, slaves were assigned to
specific jobs and most worked in the fields
Supervisors known as “drivers” (often slaves
themselves) made sure slaves followed orders
and carried out punishment
Slave owners demanded that slaves work as
much as possible
Working in the Field

Most plantation owners used the ganglabor system
 In
this system, all field hands worked on the
same task at the same time
 Worked from sunrise to sunset
Men, women, and children older that 10
usually did the same tasks
 Sickness and poor weather conditions
rarely stopped the work

Working in the Planter’s Home
Some slaves worked at butlers, cooks, or
nurses in the planter’s home
 Often had better food, clothing, and shelter
than slaves who worked in the field but
worked longer hours

 Served
the planter’s family 24 hours a day
Working at Skilled Jobs

On larger plantations, some slaves worked
at skilled jobs
 Blacksmithing,

carpentry
Some slave owners would allow their
slaves to sell their services to other people
and collect a portion of the earnings
 This
helped some enslaved Africans purchase
their freedom
Life Under Slavery

Slaveholders viewed slaves as property
and not as human beings
 Bought
and sold slaves to make a profit
Most common method of sale were at slave
auctions
 Auctions determined whether slave families would
be separated or kept together



Once separated, there was little hope for slave families to
reunite
Slave traders often kidnapped free African
Americans and sold them into slavery
Living Conditions

Poor living conditions
 Dirt

floor cabins or shacks
Few furnishing and leaky roofs
 Cheap

Some slaves tried to brighten up their clothing by
sewing designs created from discarded scrap
material


clothing made of coarse fabric
Expression of individuality
Slaves also tried to improve poor food
rations
 Some
planters allowed slaves to have small
gardens to grow their own vegetables and have
chickens for eggs
Punishment and Slave Codes

Some planters offered more food or better living
conditions to encourage obedience but most
used punishment
 Harsh,
inhumane punishment of a slave in front of
other slaves would serve as a warning: Be obedient
or else

To further control the actions of slaves, some
states passed strict laws called slave codes
 Prohibited
to travel
 May not be educated
Slave Culture
Slaves sought comfort within their slave
communities and through their culture
 Slaves made time for social activities even
after exhausting work days

 Relieved
lives
them from the hardships of their
Family
and
Community
 Family was the most important aspect of slave
communities
 Constant
fear of separation greater than the fear of
punishment

Slaves parents kept their heritage alive by passing
down family histories as well as African customs
and traditions
 Told
Folktales to teach lessons about how to survive
under slavery



Stories with a moral
Usually included a clever animal character called a “trickster”
that would defeat a stronger animal by outwitting it
Assured slaves that they could survive by outsmarting more
powerful slaveholders
Religion

By the early 1800’s, most slaves were Christians
 Came
to see themselves, like the slaves in the Old
Testament, as God’s chosen people much like the
Hebrew Slaves in ancient Egypt

Sang spirituals
 Emotional
Christian songs that blended African and
European music


Slaves blended aspects of their traditional
African religions with those of Christianity
Worshipped in secret
Seeds of Rebellion

Maintaining their own religious beliefs and
practices was only one way in which enslaved
people resisted control
 Small



rebellion daily
Sometimes they worked slower to protest long hours
Sometimes they ran away to visit relatives
Gaining freedom by escaping to the North was
difficult
 If
found, slaves were sent back were they faced
certain punishment or death
Slave Uprisings
Even though violent slave revolts were
rare, white southerners lived in fear of
them
 Two planned slave rebellions were
stopped before they began

 Gabriel
Prosser planned a rebellion near
Richmond, VA in 1800
 Denmark Vesey planned a rebellion in
Charleston, SC in 1822
 Local authorities executed those involved
Slave Uprisings

Nat Turner’s Rebellion
 Most
violent slave revolt in the country in
1831
 A slave named Nat Turner from Southampton
Country, VA believed that God told him to end
all slavery
 Led a group of slaves in a plan to kill of the
slaveholders and their families in the county
 Rebellion began by attacking the family that
held Nat Turner a slave
 60 whites were killed in the rebellion
Slave Uprisings



More than 100 innocent slaves who were not a
part of Nat Turner’s rebellion were killed in an
attempt to stop the rebellion
Nat Turner led authorities in a chase around the
countryside for 6 weeks before he was captured
Before his trial, Nat Turner confessed his belief
that his actions were justified and that his
execution would be worth it
 Nat

Turner was executed on November 11, 1831
After the rebellion, many states strengthened
their slave codes