Ch.14, Sec.1- The Growth of Cotton

The South’s Agricultural Economy Prices for major cash crops fell, so landowners either began cutting production or switching to crops that needed less labor like wheat. This also led to the value of slaves dropping. Some slaveholders began freeing their slaves for either moral or political reasons. Some people believed a nation founded on liberty could not support slavery, and Northern states began to slowly abolish slavery completely.

Whitney and the Cotton Gin In 1792, Eli Whitney visited a Georgia plantation owned by Catherine Greene, where they were using a machine to remove seeds from long staple cotton. Greene asked Whitney to improve the machine, and he did so by the following spring. The invention was the cotton gin, and it used a hand cranked cylinder with wire teeth to pull cotton fibers apart from the seeds.

The Cotton Boom Whitney’s gin began a cotton boom. Cotton by 1860 accounted for more than half of all U.S. exports. The area stretching from South Carolina to Texas became known as the cotton belt. Cotton also had an advantage because it could be stored for a long period of time and it was light, so it was cheaper to transport. This would lead to a growing demand for field hands, so they once again turned to slavery more than ever before. Even though Congress made it illegal to import slaves in 1808, they still had a domestic slave trade within the U.S.

Sec.2- The Southern Economy

The Cotton Trade The trade of cotton from the south to the northeast led to the South developing major port cities like Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and the most major of all New Orleans, Louisiana.

Agricultural Diversity Planting cotton over and over again on the same piece of soil wore out the soil. Therefore, farmers began using a process called crop rotation where one year they plant a crop that drained the soil of all its nutrients, and the next year plant a crop that puts the nutrients back in the soil. Jean Etienne Bore invented a new system for processing sugar in Using Caribbean techniques, he perfected a way of processing Louisiana sugarcane into granulated sugar. This would lead to Louisiana becoming the center of the sugar industry in the U.S. In 1839, a slave used heat from burning charcoal to cure tobacco more quickly. This would increase tobacco farming, but it still took longer to process than most crops.

Southern Factories In 1803, the nation’s first steam powered sawmill was built in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. Most of the factories were in the Northeast. In 1848, Joseph R. Anderson became the owner of the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond. His company was the only large southern factory that made iron products.

Sec.3- Southern Society

The Planters In the first half of the 1800s, about one-third of white southern families had slaves, and fewer had plantations. The richest people that owned the plantations and many slaves were called planters. These people supervised the slaves and made sure the crops were producing. The planter’s wife raised the children and supervised the work of the slaves within the household. Slave women typically cooked, cleaned, and helped take care of the planter’s children. Planters often arranged their children’s marriages based on business interests.

Southern Society and Culture Yeomen, or owners of small farms, made up the majority of southern farmers. They typically had only a few slaves or none at all. These men usually wanted to one day become planters. They unlike planters, worked side by side with their slaves. Some wealthy white southerners used religion to justify their position in society and the use of slaves. They argued that God created some people to rule over African Americans. This went against the belief of most northern Christians who believed God opposed slavery. Probably the most famous writer in the mid-1800s was Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. His most famous writings were The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Free African Americans In 1860, most free African Americans lived in the South. They became free by either running away or being granted their freedom. Most of them hired out their services to plantations. White southerners were always afraid they would try to encourage slave rebellions, so most of them could not vote, travel freely, or hold certain types of jobs. In some places, they had to have a white person represent them in a business deal. In 1806, Virginia passed a law banning former slaves from living in the state without special permission.

Sec.4- The Slave System

Slaves and Work Most plantation owners used the gang labor system where all the slaves worked on the same task from sunup to sundown. Inside slaves usually had better food and clothing, but they had to work longer hours, serving the planters family 24 hours a day. Sometimes planters would allow the slaves to hire out their services with the hope of one day buying their freedom.

Life Under Slavery Slaves typically received poor clothing and shelter, living in small cabins with dirt floors, leaky roofs, and few furnishings. Some planters would allow slaves to keep their own vegetable gardens or chickens. Some planters would offer more food or better living conditions to encourage slave obedience, but most used punishment instead. Some would even do this in front of other slaves to warn the others. There were also slave codes which kept them from traveling far from home and teaching a slave to read or write was illegal.

Slave Culture Most slaves feared being separated from their families more than physical punishment. The slaves would tell folktales, or stories with a moral, to teach lessons about how to survive under slavery. These would tell slaves not to trust slaveholders, who were usually represented by powerful animals. By the 1800s, many slaves were Christians. White ministers said God wanted slaves to obey slaveholders. However, they would tell the minister that the Bible says all people are equal in God’s eyes. They said they were God’s chosen people. Slaves would worship in secret, and would sing spirituals, or songs that blended African and European music, to express their religious beliefs.

Challenging Slavery Slaves would rebel by either working slower or running away for a few days. They also would run away to the North. In 1831, Nat Turner believed God had called on him to end slavery. Nat Turner’s Rebellion began in August He led a group that set out to kill slaveholders and their families. They killed about 60 people. More than 100 slaves were killed in this rebellion. Turner was captured and executed on November 11, After the rebellion, many states strengthened their slave codes.