Cotton Gang System

Plantations were spread out from each other along the regions rivers, and with every plantation conducting its own manufacture, sales and distribution, there was very little chance for the Virginians to create a more communal society. Plantation owners controlled large groups of bondsmen working in the fields controlled by overseers, and women served as house servants for the plantation masters. Most of these women were sexually abused by their masters and penalized with longer terms of service if they happen to bare illegitimate children. Because of disease, living conditions and harsh treatment 40% of the servants did not survive their terms of service. 1.

Throughout the development of the colonies in America, slave trade grew to be a significant source of labor in primarily southern plantations within the late seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. During the era, with slaves being condemned to be considered socially inferior by law, and the increase in demand of goods such as rice and indigo, the slave labor force became a notable source for southern plantations in the eighteenth century. Slaves and people of color had always been considered to be socially inferior even before the colonies existed. With a sense of paternalism in Great Britain, people have always believed that those considered slaves,or servants rather, were second class citizens, and these people needed to be suppressed for their own best interests.

Between the 1820s and 1860s, a time period that was greatly influenced by the Industrial Revolution, people were willing to work hard so that they could provide for their families. Slaves were still being used to help develop the United States of America by harvest crops such as cotton, and please their “masters.” were forced to work and help develop the country. Both slavery and industry helped the country grow financially. Slaves had to work harder to meet higher cotton demands. The introduction of the cotton gin also aided in the aided in the rapid production of cotton (PIIP 9).

slave trade to work in the tobacco fields. Tobacco was a lucrative crop at the time and the need for tobacco grew and so did the need for people (slaves) to work in the tobacco fields. However, this was not the only need for slaves, as slaves were bought for different reason and performed different jobs. The first group of slaves eventually earned their freedom and became slave owners themselves, but that did not last very long before slavery became race-based slavery system. Still, slavery was not as harsh as it would become years into the future and more particularly in the south and as it worsen in response to several attempted rebellion by slaves or runaway slaves.

It revolutionized the cotton industry by making it more profitable. A machine was now used to remove seeds from cotton rather than having to remove them by hand. This allowed more cotton to be processed quicker which made production of cotton more efficient for farmers. Prior to the invention of the cotton gin, slavery was actually dying out in the southern United States due to how labor intensive the removal of seeds from cotton had become.

Following the War of 1812, America entered a period known as the Antebellum Era, meaning "before the Civil War," which lasted from 1815 to 1861. This period was characterized by the Market Revolution, which saw the birth of American capitalism and caused major social and economic change. From the year 1815 to 1850, slavery remained an established institution, economic change in the North East led to industrialization which in turn caused other economic and social changes, and a shift in America's social climate caused the growth of the abolitionist movement. One change that transformed American society was industrialization. Prior to the War of 1812, American society was mostly comprised of yeoman farmers who subsisted through trade and barter,

Originally shipped via boat, most were immediately torn away from their families and sold to plantation owners. Stronger men were most preferred due to their strength and stamina. Likewise, bigger women who could move and life more were favored as well. To continue a strong blood line throughout the plantation, the slave owner, or “Master”, would force slaves into reproducing and threaten them with punishment if they did not abide. An extremely controversial issue at the time, and still today, few non-blacks recognized the inhumanity that individuals were being exposed to.

That is why the invention of the “cotton gin” was very important for the South, as it helped them get out seeds faster than a slave could. Ten years after the invention of the “cotton gin”, cotton became the South’s most important

The use of the cotton gin had a major impact on slavery by expanding the use and population of slaves. “This machine revolutionized the process of separating cotton from its seed, making it dramatically faster and less expensive to turn picked cotton into usable cotton for textiles” the author said. Harvesting the cotton fields was intense work and the more cotton that was being produced lead to more fields causing more slaves to be needed to work those fields. All the large cotton plantations that the south maintained, by 1850 the slave population increased tremendously. “Southern wealth had become reliant on this one crop and thus was completely dependent on slave-labor.”

The invention of the cotton gin created a market for cotton that the planters could hardly supply without cheap labor. Almost every available acre was brought under cotton culture as the small farmers were driven into the West. The demand for slaves to work the fields was enormous. This led to the development of the plantation system of the Far South and Southwest, where masters were near constantly extending their holdings of lands and slaves. Efforts to form new slave states were common, most prominent of these efforts was that to annex Texas.

The slavery system was very unfair to many African Americans that had only wanted freedom. Some had been forced to come here and they were treated like things not like people. What I will be talking about is the treatment, what they did, their restrictions, and what their “duties” were. The treatment of the slaves was terrible, they had to work all day and they would get paid maybe one dollar a week.

For example, small farmers depended on the local plantation aristocracy for access to cotton gins, markets for their modest crops and their livestock, and credit or other financial assistance in time of need. The great cotton economy allowed many small farmers to improve their economic fortunes. Some bought more land, some became slave owners, and some moved into the fringes of plantation society. A typical white southerner was a yeoman farmer, who was also known as “plain folk.” These farmers owned a few slaves, with whom they worked and lived more closely than the larger planters.

Between 1800 and 1860 two major things changed within the country. The cash crops changed from tobacco and rice to the new money maker cotton. Along with the crops changing the slave trade grew to replace the economic short fall in the Chesapeake area. These changed occurred due to the supply and demand of commonly bought goods. Another contributing factor for the crops changing was the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 and the use of cotton in textile facilities.

The people from Africa were generally part of early American history; however, Africans had experience slavery under better conditions compared to the conditions imposed by other civilized society. From the Egyptian Empire to the Empire of Songhai, slavery was practice for the betterment of their society, however, foreigners invaded these regions and took their slave, their ports and impose these people to a life of servitude in the Caribbean islands and in the English’s colonies. Furthermore, the African American slaves were an active agent of society in the earliest period of American history; they have brought new religious practices to their community; for instance, they constructed networks of communities; they had fought in war alongside

There were two types of labor, indentured servants and slavery. Indentured servants are bound by contract servants that worked two to seven years long in exchange for freedom dues, such as clothes, guns, and possibly land. They are skilled craftsmen, unmarried women, and orphaned children.