The Slave Economy Page 479

1. The Slave EconomyPage 479

2. Views on Slavery • Slavery had been a part of American life since colonial days. • Some people thought slavery was wrong. • Most Northerners once thought that all Southerners owned slaves.

3. The Slave Economy • Southern Slaveholders in 1860: • 75% owned no slaves • 5% owned 1 slave • 13% owned 2-9 slaves • 4% owned 10-19 slaves • 3% owned 20 or more slaves

5. The Slave Economy • Most southern families could not make money using enslaved workers. • The cost of feeding, clothing, and housing slaves was too great. • In 1860 only one white Southern family in four owned slaves. • Wealthy plantation owners owned more than half the slaves in the South.

7. What Did Slaves Do? • Miners • Carpenters • Factory Workers • Skilled Workers • House Servants • Field Slaves

8. Growing Cotton • Cotton was a difficult crop to grow. • Once the cotton was harvested, workers had to remove small seeds from the white cotton fibers. • This was a slow, tiring job that took much time. • Many plantation owners chose to grow crops that required less time.

9. Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin • In 1793 Eli Whitney invented a machine called the cotton engine. • The cotton gin (as it was called) removed the seeds from the cotton fibers much faster that workers could. • This one change in technology led to many other changes.

10. Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin

11. King Cotton • With the cotton gin, cotton could be cleaned and prepared for market in less time. • Planters could grow and sell more cotton and make more money. • Southern planters sold the cotton to textile mills in the North and in Europe.

12. Worldwide Demand for Cotton • Demand for cotton made Southern planters and Northern textile-mill owners rich. • It also created more demand for slaves. • Planters needed slaves to plant the seeds, weed the fields, pick the cotton, and run the cotton gins. • Without slaves, the end of all things would soon come.