Cotton Plantations & the Spread of Slavery What factors led to the Civil War?

Enslaved workers labor in the cotton fields. Hand picking and cleaning cotton was time consuming and labor intensive. It was difficult for smaller plantations to make a reasonable living.

The need for cotton English textile mills created a huge demand for cotton Cotton that grew in the south was hard to clean by hand- 1 worker could clean 1 pound in a day Plantations were struggling to make a profit

1793 Eli Whitney invents the Cotton Gin. The cotton gin made it easier and faster for slaves to clean cotton. This increased the profit made by the plantations.

The results of the cotton gin 1 worker could now clean 50 pounds of cotton in a day Cotton became a commercial product and changed Southern life in 4 ways Cotton farming moved beyond the coastal states toward the West into Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and into Texas. Cotton became a valuable good and was grown more than other goods as cotton exports increased

Native Americans were driven off their lands as cotton plantations increased Growing cotton required a larger work force and more slaves were sold to work on plantations in the South and West.

From 1790 to 1860 cotton production and slave labor rose. Slavery Expands From 1790 to 1860 cotton production and slave labor rose. Millions of bales of cotton were sold to England and the American Northeast for use in their textile mills. In 1820, the South earned $22 million from cotton exports. By 1830,it was $200 million.

The Price of Slaves In the 1790’s a male field hand sold for $300. By the late 1830’s, the price jumped to $1,000. After 1808 it became illegal to import Africans for use as slaves, so the trading of slaves already in the country increased.

Slavery Divides the South Only 1/3 of white Southerners owned slaves. Out of these, only 1/10 had large plantations with 20 or more slaves. The majority of the money in the South belonged to these people. Most white Southerners owned few or no slaves and worked their farms themselves. These made very little money.

Even though they did not own slaves, small farm owners still supported the idea of slavery as a means to making money. They hoped to save enough to buy slaves to work their land and produce more cotton and increase their profits. 1/3 of the Southern population in 1840 was enslaved African Americans. Half of these worked on large plantations with white overseerers.

Not all African Americans were slaves. Some had been freed by their owners, bought their own freedom, or had been born free. Even though they were free they were not allowed to vote or get an education. They were not hired by white employers. Some states made them leave once they gained their freedom. They lived in fear of being captured and sold back into slavery!

Map Work Look at the map on page 350. Which 5 states had the largest areas devoted to growing cotton? How far north did people grow cotton?