“Necessity is the mother of all invention.” Cotton labor conducted by slaves was arduous and took long periods of time. A necessity for a faster way to separate the cotton seeds from the fiber evolved because it would take slaves laborious hours to created small amounts of cotton. In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and patented it a year later which mechanized the cotton process. This had the benefit of lowering the price of cotton production and removing slaves from that part of the process. It also had the advantage of amplifying the demand for the white valuable crop. During the antebellum period, Eli Whitney’s cotton gin increased the desire for slavery because of its leading technology, the world’s accelerating demand for cotton, …show more content…
In only sixty minutes, the cotton gin was able to manufacture as much cotton as one-hundred slaves could in a day. The profit of raw cotton increased by twice as much every decade after 1800, which was around the time Eli Whitney patented his invention (Farrow 9). During this cotton gin period, cotton demand accelerated so rapidly, tobacco value dropped, exports of rice remained constant, and sugar prospered only in Louisiana (Farrow 10). Numerous plantation owners switched their crop to cotton because it rapidly became immensely profitable (Farrow 7). When the slaves and demand for cotton accelerated, consequently, the need for larger plantations increased. The process of separating cotton seeds expedited, leading to a boom in amount of slaves and a growing magnitude of cotton plantations. Plantation owners required more slaves to work the fields and pick cotton quicker so that they were able to meet the fast production of cotton cause new cotton gin. Forced laborers rarely had a break because they would work from day to night. Slaves continued working and some would never stop until the fortunate event of death would take their miserable destitute lives. Plantation owners strongly desired more land and slave labor because cotton was becoming extremely prosperous. In the span of 70 years, a feeble six slave states increased to an impactful fifteen, …show more content…
In the years before Whitney’s invention, the prosperity of slavery was depleting, causing Abolitionists to assume Congress would ultimately outlaw slavery entirely (Wise). Northerners were provoked to act on slavery when it expeditiously grew in the South. The abolitionists of the North believed that this painful labor in cotton and other cash crops was a form of cruel, inhumane torture. When the southerners began to import more slaves, the abolitionists realized that this problem was not subsiding. The abolitionists were incited to react harshly towards the South when they needed more slaves to manage plantations. This caused plantation owners to treat their slaves even worse. Slavery was the catalyst that sparked Civil War. Subsequently, the efficiency of the cotton gin had the negative impact of increasing the slavery population in America. Southerners became extremely affluent by joining the cotton industry so they were stubborn about maintaining their slaves. When the Abolitionists proposed nullifying slavery, the Southerners decided to secede (Wise). The cotton gin was an invention that caused vast amounts of growth and prosperity for the United States, lead to much death, but aided in the effort to eradicate America’s most atrocious practice, slavery
Even though the cotton gin didn’t make a lot of money for Whitney, it boosted the money for other people. Even though it didn’t help him at all, he had still become very known for his invention. Before the cotton gin, the Southern slave owners made their slaves pick cotton with their bare hands making it really difficult for the slaves. Whitney later made the cotton gin. Slave owners had heard about it and they immediately
The cotton gin is one of the early centuries’ inventions that changed world history politically, socially, and economically, for good and for worst. It is supposedly said that Eli Whitney’s invention – the cotton gin came into existence after knowing of the cotton planters’ grief of the overwhelming burdening work it was to clean cotton seeds. Having been patented in 1794, the cotton gin increased cotton production form 3000 bales annually in 1790 to 400, 000 bales of cotton annually. During this time between 300 and 1000 tons were produced per slave daily. Upon Louisiana Land purchase in 1830, 4 million bales were produced annually, consequently this made a huge contribution to the national basket.
After the cotton gin was invented, The amount of raw cotton each year doubled every decade or so after the 1800's. By mid century, America was making most of the cotton and then shipping it to New England to have turned into cloth. Because of this, Tobacco started to loose value and sugar started to grow and develop. Many times, the slaves would be the ones to pick the cotton, so the number of slaves states in the United States began to increase majorly. The slaves were forced to work out on the farm picking cotton, they made up about 72% of the manufacturing capacity in the
Inventions like Eli Whitneys' Cotton Gin also greatly contributed to cotton's success in the South, along with their accesibility to cheap labor through the
The American Revolution, was an inspiration to black people and they’d hoped the words and rules of the Patriots go for them as well. But that wasn’t the case. When all of the Armies had gone away from the land, we were a country of farmers founded by notions of freedom. We had over 700,000 slaves working in the US at its birth.
In the year of 1793, the creation behind the cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney. His invention revived the economy of the South. The cotton gin was useful because it allowed the slaves to clean more cotton faster and it cut down the amount of time it took to do so. This also helped save the slaves from having to pick out all the seeds one by one from the cotton balls. As stated by Maureen Romero, “The South became the cotton producing part of the country because Whitney’s cotton gin was able to successfully pull out the seeds from the cotton bolls.”
The American Civil War and the Reconstruction periods played an important role in defining the nation’s political, social, and economic identity in the sense that the country’s survival and democratic principles were radically tested. As the country was becoming a hemispherical power, sectional tensions and dissenting attitudes of opposing groups make these periods comparable with the Revolutionary War in three major components: the issue of slavery and struggle for equality, the role of the federal government vs. states’ rights, and scuffles related with economic power. Prior to the Revolutionary War, there was an existing struggle between social classes as the southern states had an inflexible social structure, whereas in the northern states the Industrial Revolution was beginning to take place, causing a dramatic shift of labor force after the country gained its independence in 1783. With the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1791, southern landowners took advantage of the slave force to increase their profits radically, and this reliance on slaves for the
The impact of slavery on the Old South is a difficult measure to establish because slavery was the Old South. While the popular adage was “Cotton is King,” it was simply a microcosm of the delusion of the day. Truly, slavery was king. Slavery was the growing tension of the time, political catalyst and ironically crux of American power. To the masses, slavery was a social defining stance; the “peculiar institution” to some and a defining moral line to others, American life was changed depending on what view you took of slavery.
The increase in profits led to the demand for more slaves to help plant and harvest the cotton. The slaves were no longer needed in the removal of seeds from cotton but were needed in increase numbers for planting and harvesting. There was a direct correlation between the increase in cotton production and the increase in slave populations
They also talk about examples of how slave owners use their slaves and the growth of slavery. “Maryland generally: the city 's numbers nearly quadrupled, from 1,255 to 4,672, while in the rest of the county slavery increased by less than 15 percent.” This quote explains how slavery grows fast and even in specific places they grow faster than
On any sizeable sugar plantation expensive goods and equipment were necessary if it was to produce effectively and therefore it was a substantial investment (Doc 6). Peter Macinnis refers to this need for considerable investment as the first curse of sugar; due to the fact that establishing a sugar plantation was an expensive endeavor only families that already had the means were able to do so (Doc 7). Without slaves the sugar industry would have failed, almost every aspect of the process of manufacturing sugar was done by slaves, as the demand rose so did the number of slaves, but there was a high price to pay if one was to acquire the amount of slaves necessary on a large plantation (Doc
Due to the lack of technological advances at the time, the demand or need for fast, efficient, mass production of agricultural goods was only met by slave labor. Unfortunately, at the time slavery was by far the most efficient method of labor, and it served as a foundation for basic American economics, politics, and social issues. Slavery propelled the United States to the economic powerhouse that it is today largely due to success in the cotton and tobacco industries, so the need for slavery at the time was for rapid economic growth. Slavery at the time was also a huge sign of social status “buying a slave was a way of coming into their own in a society in which they were otherwise excluded from full participation” Buying slaves allowed slaveholders to buy their economic and social independence. The purchase of a
The expanding cotton farms needed cheap labor, which also resulted in an increased use of African slaves. This helped the slave-owners to keep them separated and less over power their masters. Slave marriages had no legal basis, but slaves did marry and raise large families. Most slave owners encouraged this practice, but would still try to separate slave families by sale or
With the cotton gin, the farmers could separate cotton faster, so they could grow more cotton. To grow more cotton, more slaves would be need to plant and harvest it. Also, the plantation owners could afford more slaves because their was more cotton that brought it more money. The plantation owners would repeat this cycle as they got more money. They could also borrow money from the banks to buy more land, or slaves.
Lastly, with the expansion of the country to the west and into what we now know as Texas drove the need for more slaves to work the land. With the decrease of demand for tobacco and rice, plantations turned to the new crop cotton. In 1800 less than half a million bales of cotton