1. The South
Chapter 12
Part I

2. Growth of the Cotton Industry

3. Reviving the South’s Economy

4. Before the American Revolution the southern economy was dominated by three cash crops
Tobacco, Rice & Indigo
These crops were harvested by enslaved African Americans

5. After the revolution the prices of these crops dropped and cotton replaced these as the new cash crop of The South

6. Seeds had to be removed from cotton before it could be weaved into cloth
Removing the seeds was time consuming and would cut the pickers hands

7. Eli Whintey created the Cotton Gin to remove the seeds from the cotton
The Cotton Gin proved to be so useful that plantation owners were able to own upwards of 20 slaves

8. The Cotton Boom
By 1860 the United States was producing half of the world’s cotton
This attracted new settlers, increased the wealth of white southerners and kept slavery legal in The South

9. Other Crops and Industries

10. Corn was the main food crop in The South
Other food crops included rice, sweet potatoes, wheat and sugar

11. Tobacco was a time consuming because the leaved had to be dried before they could be shipped to market
A slave tried drying the leaves quicker by using heat from burning charcoal
This new method of drying tobacco caused an increase in tobacco production

12. Besides cotton, hemp and flax also became major cash crops
They could be used to make rope and sacks to bundle and keep the cotton together in bales

13. The South wasn’t just about farming, they had their own industries as well

14. They had factories to:
Process sugar,
Sawmills to cut, sort and clean wood, and
Cotton mills to create textiles
Because competition from The North was so stiff, farming interests made up the bulk of The South’s economy

15. Southern Society

16. Southern Society and Culture
During the first half of the 19th C 1/3 of all southerners had slaves.
Few families owned plantations however they had a lot of power over The South

17. The South consisted of:
Southern Heirarchy
The South consisted of:
Planters,
Yeoman Farmers,
Poor Whites,
Slaves and
Free African Americans

18. Planters Planters were the wealthiest part of southern society
Planters supervised the crops and the slaves
Their wives supervised the children and all the slaves inside the house

19. Slave women cooked, cleaned and cared for the children

20. Yeoman Farmers Yeoman were white southerners that owned small farms
They owned only a few or no slaves at all

21. Poor Whites Poor Whites lived on land that crops could not be grown on
They hunted and fished and had small gardens
They did whatever jobs were available

22. Slaves did most of the work in cities as servants, and skilled jobs
Southern cities were fewer in number but very similar to their northern counterparts
They built:
water systems,
Maintained streets,
Built schools
Slaves did most of the work in cities as servants, and skilled jobs

23. Free African Americans and Discrimination

24. There were some free African Americans in The South
Some were former slaves that ran away, some were freed by their slaveholder, and some earned enough money to buy freedom

25. Free African Americans faced daily discrimination from southern whites
Laws were passed limiting their rights
They could not vote, travel or hold certain jobs
White people had to represent them in business affairs