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Group 8: Life in the South and the Cotton Boom

Group 8: Life in the South and the Cotton Boom. By Ilya Yashin and Carina Tomich. The two types of cotton. Short-staple cotton was easier to grow but harder to process Long-staple cotton grew well only in small regions but was easier to process. Eli Whitney and the cotton gin.

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Group 8: Life in the South and the Cotton Boom

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  1. Group 8:Life in the South and the Cotton Boom By IlyaYashin and Carina Tomich

  2. The two types of cotton • Short-staple cotton was easier to grow but harder to process • Long-staple cotton grew well only in small regions but was easier to process

  3. Eli Whitney and the cotton gin. • In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which allowed to process short-staple cotton more easily. Thanks to the invention, cotton exports skyrocketed. The slave population increased dramatically because of the new cotton fields

  4. Industrialization in the South Reasons for slow industrialization in the South: • Most southern investors put their money in land and slaves rather than in new factories • Planters used their influence to discourage states from imposing taxes to fund improvements that might have promoted manufacturing. • Factory workers were in short supply because the region's reliance on slave labor discouraged immigrants from coming to the South. • The market for manufactured goods suffered from the fact that slaves and poor whites (the bulk of the rural population) had little or no purchasing power.

  5. Social Classes in the pre-Civil War South • Wealthy planters • Small farmers (a.k.a. yeoman farmers) • The very poor

  6. Wealthy Farmers • Only few of them had more than 20 slaves • The richest ones lived elegantly in beautiful mansions • The plantation owners were kept busy managing the plantation • The planters' wives supervised the food preparation, housecleaning, mending, spinning; they kept track of household finances, cared for the sick, supervised the house slaves, and often taught the children • The planters' wives did not do any hard physical work

  7. Small farmers • Made up the majority of southern white society • Most lived on fertile lands • Often lacked easy access to markets • Raised cattle and pigs; sold crops for cash • Most had no slaves, but some managed to buy a few

  8. The very poor • Farmed the least productive soil • Lived in rough cabins, ate poorly, sometimes suffered from medical problems • Owned no slaves • Survived by hunting, fishing, farming, and raising pigs

  9. Free African Americans in the South • By 1860 some 260,000 free African Americans lived in the South • Some had never been enslaved, while other worked extra hours to earn their and their relatives' freedom • Some worked as skilled craftspeople, domestic cooks and servants • A small minority of free African Americans became landowners and some even purchased slave

  10. Restrictions on the Right of Free African Americans • The free African Americans to carry identification passes to prove that they were not runaway slaves • They were not permitted to vote, hold public meetings, carry weapons, or testify in court against whites • In many places, free African Americans could not go into business for themselves or learn how to read and write • Unemployed African Americans could be sold into servitude for months or even years

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