Social and Economic Effects
Agricultural Changes - During the late 1700s and early 1800s most of the American South depended on slave labor for agricultural needs. Before the creation and proliferation of the cotton gin, rice and tobacco were the staple crops of the region. Many historians argue that if not for the sudden ability to make large profits off of cotton, the industry in the region would have stagnated, along with the need for slave laborers. At the very least, if not fighting for the defense of the exploding and lucrative cotton industry, conflict between the North and South might have been eased.
Exapnsion West - The cotton gin was patented in 1794 by Eli Whitney, shortly following the birth of the nation and right before westward expansion. Cotton soon became the most profitable cash crop, and therefore was the choice of most agricultural lands as Americans moved westward. However, with the expansion of cotton fields and cotton gins westward, it undoubtedly placed an even heavier burden on African slave laborers who were enslaved into these expanding agricultural regions, mostly to harvest cotton and operate gins.
Nationwide Economy - The booming nationwide economy of the United States at the time was in many ways connected to the booming agricultural success of cotton and the cotton gin in the South. Textile centers like Lowell, Massachusetts were booming, while life improved for many textile and fabric merchants, with of course slaves having the opposite fortune. This growth in the American economy in the 1830's and 1840's was the "Cotton in King" mindset. While we believe that this mostly occurred only within the Deep South, it wasn't just a Southern phenomenon. Cotton was one of the world's first luxury commodities, after sugar and tobacco, and was also the commodity whose production most dramatically turned millions of black human beings in the United States themselves into commodities.
Slavery - The interconnected and overlapping economies of the cotton plantation, the Northern banking industry, New England textile factories and a huge proportion of the economy of Great Britain helps understand why the abolition in the country was ever done with slaves and cotton going hand-in-hand. The invention of the cotton gin greatly increased the productivity of cotton harvesting by slaves. This resulted in dramatically higher profits for planters, which in turn led to a seemingly insatiable increase in the demand for more slaves.
Cotton - Slave-produced cotton brought commercial ascendancy to New York City, was the driving force for territorial expansion in the Old Southwest and fostered trade between Europe and the United States. In fact, cotton productivity, no doubt due to the sharecropping system that replaced slavery, remained central to the American economy for a very long time: Cotton was the leading American export from 1803 to 1937.
Exapnsion West - The cotton gin was patented in 1794 by Eli Whitney, shortly following the birth of the nation and right before westward expansion. Cotton soon became the most profitable cash crop, and therefore was the choice of most agricultural lands as Americans moved westward. However, with the expansion of cotton fields and cotton gins westward, it undoubtedly placed an even heavier burden on African slave laborers who were enslaved into these expanding agricultural regions, mostly to harvest cotton and operate gins.
Nationwide Economy - The booming nationwide economy of the United States at the time was in many ways connected to the booming agricultural success of cotton and the cotton gin in the South. Textile centers like Lowell, Massachusetts were booming, while life improved for many textile and fabric merchants, with of course slaves having the opposite fortune. This growth in the American economy in the 1830's and 1840's was the "Cotton in King" mindset. While we believe that this mostly occurred only within the Deep South, it wasn't just a Southern phenomenon. Cotton was one of the world's first luxury commodities, after sugar and tobacco, and was also the commodity whose production most dramatically turned millions of black human beings in the United States themselves into commodities.
Slavery - The interconnected and overlapping economies of the cotton plantation, the Northern banking industry, New England textile factories and a huge proportion of the economy of Great Britain helps understand why the abolition in the country was ever done with slaves and cotton going hand-in-hand. The invention of the cotton gin greatly increased the productivity of cotton harvesting by slaves. This resulted in dramatically higher profits for planters, which in turn led to a seemingly insatiable increase in the demand for more slaves.
Cotton - Slave-produced cotton brought commercial ascendancy to New York City, was the driving force for territorial expansion in the Old Southwest and fostered trade between Europe and the United States. In fact, cotton productivity, no doubt due to the sharecropping system that replaced slavery, remained central to the American economy for a very long time: Cotton was the leading American export from 1803 to 1937.