1. Agricultural Changes in the South
Chapter 14
Agricultural Changes in the South

2. Section 1- The Growth of Cotton
Southern famers prided themselves on their ability to work their land.
After the revolutionary War, agriculture on the South began to decline.
Prices began to drop and the demand for slaves began to fall in parts of the South.
Many farmers freed their slaves for moral or political reasons on the Upper South.
Others began to plant inexpensive crops like wheat and cotton.

3. Whitney and the Cotton Gin
The expanding textile industry put a high demand on cotton.
However, farmers had a hard time keeping up with the demand due to the raw processing of the seeds.
Eli Whitney built a machine in 1793 that allowed a worker to remove the seeds from the cotton easily.
This machine was called the cotton gin. It allowed an all-day job to be done in one hour.

4. The Cotton Boom
Whitney’s invention shortly made cotton a staple crop in the U.S..
Farmers eagerly began gathering land to plant cotton. The new Cotton Kingdom included land stretching from South Carolina to Texas.
This land became known as the cotton belt.
This cotton demand had one major drawback though. Slave labor was used more than any other point in American history.

5. Section- The Southern Economy
Senator Henry Hammond, a politician from South Carolina, declared in a speech that, “Cotton is king!”
Due to its importance in Great Britain, many southern ports began to open up in order to sell cotton.
Some of these ports include Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; and New Orleans, Louisiana.
In these port cities, crop brokers called factors managed the buying and selling of cotton. Most cotton was transported by ship up and down rivers.

6. Agricultural Diversity
Some southern farmers supported scientific agriculture- the use of scientific methods to improve farming. One goal was to increase crop production, but if wore out the soil.
There were two main practices that southern farmers began to use; fertilizer and crop rotation.

7. Major Crops in the South
Corn remained the most important crop in America. By the 1830s the top three corn growing states were all in the South. Tennessee was the leader with Kentucky and Virginia following close behind.
Other major crops included rice, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, and wheat.
Jean Etienne Bore invented a new system for processing sugar so much so that it became Louisiana's major crop.

8. Southern Factories
Due to the large increase in cotton demand, other industries profited as well.
Lumber yards grew in demand for their lumber to make machines and cook crops like sugar cane and tobacco.
Joseph R. Anderson built a large iron factory in the South that made products for boilers, bridges, cannons, locomotives, steam engines, and other products. Its name was Tredegar Iron Works.

9. The Planters
Popular fiction often made it seem that all southerners had many slaves and lived on large plantations. This was hardly the case.
Only about 1/3 of all southern farmers had slaves, or even owned plantations for that matter.
Planters were farmers who were wealthy. They were usually very involved in politics, oversaw the farm duties, and supervising slave labor. Their title is where the word plantation comes from.

10. Southern Society and Culture
Most southern white women married yeomen, or owners of small farms. Yeomen made up a majority of southern farmers. Unlike planters, yeomen worked alongside their slaves if they were fortunate enough to have some.
Religion was central to southern life. It was the main event that towns people would be involved in.
Southern writers also influenced the culture. Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, wrote several popular works such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

11. The Urban South
The agriculture of the south greatly influenced the urban areas.
Urban cities appeared and functioned much the same as northern cities.
Slaves however were involved in the city work. They would do jobs such as working in domestic events, in mills, in shipyards, and at skilled jobs.

12. Free African Americans
Many freed slaves found rare success in life in the south. They became free either from the Revolutionary War, running away, or earning their freedom.
In spite of constant discrimination, African Americans worked as skilled artisans, ran businesses, and a few became wealthy.
Fear forced white southern legislatures to make laws that kept slaves from becoming too successful. Many laws consisted of no voting rights, not being able to travel freely, or have certain jobs.
One Virginia law in 1806 said that former slaves could not live in the state without permission from the state. Jemima Hunt, purchased her husbands freedom, and then had to get permission for him to live in the state.

13. Section 4- The Slave System
Slave labor varied in the south. On plantations gang labor was common. This was where all slaves worked on one task until it was finished. Drivers were slaves who oversaw other slaves. Work lasted from sunup to sundown.
Some slaves worked as butlers, cooks, or nurses in a planters house.

14. Life Under Slavery
Generally, slave owners viewed their slaves as property not people. This usually shaped how their life went.
Most slaves had very poor clothing and shelter. They lived in small cabins with dirt floors, leaky rooks, and few furnishings.
Some planters used better material goods to encourage slaves obedience. Others used punishment only.
To further control slaves’ actions, many states had strict slave codes such as teaching slaves to read and write. It was illegal to do so.

15. Slave Culture
The most important unit of slave communities was the family. This was more feared than physical punishment in most cases.
Enslaved parents made sure that children never forgot their heritage. They told folktales, or stories with a moral lesson, to teach them how to survive under slavery.
Religion was also an important part of slave culture. Most were Christian. Many of them came to see themselves like the Hebrew slaves under Egyptian bondage.
Some slaves used spirituals, emotional Christian songs that blended African and European music, to express their religious beliefs.

16. Challenging Slavery
Slaves rebelled in small ways everyday. Some worked slowly, some would run away for a few days, while others would try to escape to the North.
White southerners were in constant fear of a large slave rebellion.
The most violent slave revolt happened in Nat Turner, a slave from Virginia, believed that God called him to end slavery.
Nat Turner’s Rebellion began when he led a group of slaves that set out to kill slaveholders and their families. The rebels killed about 60 white people in the area. More than 100 slaves were killed in the attempt to end the rebellion. Nat Turner himself was caught and executed on November 11, 1831.
This rebellion only proved to make life as a slave even harder.