chapter 14: agricultural changes in the south 1790-1860 holt call to freedom

Chapter 14: Agricultural Changes in the South

1790-1860

Chapter 14: Agricultural Changes in the South

1790-1860

Holt Call to FreedomHolt Call to Freedom

14.1 The Growth of Cotton

Objectives: Explain what happened to

agriculture and slavery in the South immediately after the American Revolution.

Analyze the effect of the cotton gin on the South and slavery.

Investigate the effects of the cotton boom on the South’s economy.

© Holt Call to Freedom Lecture Notes - Slide 2

I. The South’s Agricultural Economy


A. Decline

1. Prices for cash crops declined after the American Revolution.

2. The fall in crop prices reduced demand for slaves in the Upper South.


B. Freeing Slaves

1. Some slaveholders freed their slaves.

2. Many who did so were influenced by the ideals of the Revolution.

3. In the North, states gradually began to abolish slavery.

4. Some Americans predicted that slavery would eventually die out.


II. Whitney and the Cotton Gin


A. Cotton

1. Workers could easily remove seeds from long-staple cotton.

2. But long-staple cotton only grew tall in a few places in the South.

3. Short-staple, or green-seed, cotton grew well across the South, but removing its seeds was a long and difficult process.


Source: http://www.cotton.org/foundation/2004-05/projects/images/04fannreptopenfield_3.jpg

B. The Cotton Gin

1. In 1793 Eli Whitney built a machine to remove seeds from short-staple cotton.

2. Cotton gin used a hand-cranked cylinder with wire teeth to pull cotton fibers apart from the seeds.

3. Revolutionized the cotton industry, and provided a boost to southern agriculture


Source: http://www.eliwhitney.org/img_ew/whitney2.jpg

Source: http://www.nevadamercantile.com/jparker/History%20101/Cotton%20Gin.jpg

http://www.science.siu.edu/plant-biology/PLB117/JPEGs%20CD/1189.JPG

III. The Cotton Boom


A. The Cotton Kingdom

1. By 1860 cotton made up more than half of all American exports.

2. Most of this cotton was grown in the cotton belt, which included land stretching from South Carolina to Texas.

3. Agricultural scientists produced stronger, more disease-resistant breeds of cotton that farmers soon began growing.


Source: http://homepage.univie.ac.at/kurt.mayer/graphics/CottonBl.jpg

A. The Cotton Kingdom

4. Cotton was easy to grow, cost little to market, could be stored for a long time, and cost less to transport than other crops.


B. Labor

1. Growing cotton required many field hands, as did some other southern cash crops such as Louisiana sugarcane.

2. Plantation owners used slave labor rather than pay free workers.

3. The United States had banned the importation of slaves in 1808, but the domestic slave trade increased as the demand for slave labor rose in the South.


Source: http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t001/T001568D.jpg

B. Labor

4. Slaveholders in the Upper South sold slaves to planters in states farther south.


Source: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/media_content/m-3347.jpg

Slaves in Cotton FieldAn illustration depicts slaves working in a southern cotton field. After the Civil War the most important issue to white slaveholders was that many of their best cotton fields lay in disrepair and their cotton field labor had been emancipated.

Courtesy of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries

14.2 The Southern Economy

Objectives: Describe how trade affected the

southern economy. Determine why crops other than

cotton were important to the southern economy.

Identify the kinds of factories that were located in the South.


I. The Cotton Trade


A. King Cotton

1. Many southerners thought that cotton was essential to the world’s economy.

2. Southerners sold tons of cotton to Great Britain and to northeastern textile mills.

3. Increased cotton trade led to the growth of southern port cities, such as Charleston, South Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana.


B. Factors

1. Crop brokers called factors managed the cotton trade.

2. Arranged loans for cotton farmers to buy supplies

3. Arranged transport of cotton from southern port cities to markets


C. Shipping Cotton

1. Most southern farmers used rivers to ship cotton to port cities.

2. Overland shipping was difficult because the South had few roads and canals and few miles of railroads.


II. Agricultural Diversity


Cotton

RiceWheat

Sugarcane

Corn

A. New Methods

1. Scientific agriculture – the use of scientific methods to improve farming

2. Use of fertilizers and crop rotation maintained soil fertility


B. New Crops

1. Some southerners worried about the South’s dependence on cotton.

2. Argued that overproduction was driving down cotton prices

3. Southern farmers also grew corn, rice, sugarcane, and wheat as food crops


Source: http://xinsheng.net/xs/articles/gb/2004/2/24/25875.htm

http://xinsheng.net/xs/images/2004-2-24-rice-field-big.jpg

B. New Crops

4. Jean Étienne Boré invented a new system for processing sugar in 1795.

5. Louisiana became the center of the sugar industry in the United States.

6. Other southern crops included tobacco, hemp, and flax.


Source: http://www.engelfriet.net/Alie/Marieke/aline.htm

III. Southern Factories



A. Southern industries, such as lumbering, served the needs of southern farmers.



B. Most early southern factories processed crops.


C. Manufacturing

1. Joseph R. Anderson manufactured iron products at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia.

2. By 1860 the Tredegar Iron Works was one of the nation’s most productive iron works.

3. Most southerners preferred to invest in land and slaves to grow cash crops instead of investing in industry.


Source: http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/tred.jpg

C. Manufacturing

4. As a result, the South’s industrial growth lagged behind that of the North.


14.3 Southern Society

Objectives: Describe what life was like for

southern planters and owners of small farms.

Analyze what the urban South was like.

Examine the challenges free African Americans faced in the South.


I. The Planters


A. Slave Ownership

1. About one third of white southern families had slaves in the first half of the 1800s.

2. Even fewer southern families owned plantations


B. Planters’ Lives

1. Planters exercised control over southern politics and the economy.

2. Men usually focused on raising crops and supervising slaves.

3. Women usually ran the household and supervised domestic slaves; women also usually handled the family’s social responsibilities.

4. Many marriages were arranged to gain business advantages.


II. Southern Society and Culture


A. Small Farmers

1. Yeomen – owners of small farms – made up the majority of southern farmers.

2. Typically held few if any slaves; farms averaged about 100 acres

3. Yeomen who held slaves often worked side by side with them in the fields.


II. Southern Society and Culture

B. Less than 10 percent of white southerners owned no land


C. Culture

1. Religion was central to southern life.2. Some wealthy southerners used

religion to justify the institution of slavery.

3. Most southern writers greatly romanticized southern culture and plantation life.

4. In the mid-1800s some southern writers, including Samuel Clemens, or Mark Twain, provided a more balanced view of southern society.


Source: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/marktwain/mark_twain.jpg

III. The Urban South


A. Southern Cities

1. City governments provided public water systems and maintained streets.

2. Some cities also provided public education.

3. Charities helped fund services such as orphanages and public libraries.


B. Slaves in the Cities

1. Worked in mills, in shipyards, as domestic servants, and at skilled jobs

2. Many business leaders held slaves or hired them from nearby plantations.

3. Urban white southerners more likely to hold slaves than rural white southerners.


IV. Free African Americans


IV. Free African Americans

A. In 1860 more than half of all free African Americans lived in the South.


B. Earning a Living

1. Many free African Americans worked as skilled artisans in urban areas.

2. Those living in rural areas often hired out their services to plantations.

3. A few free African Americans became financially successful.


C. Society

1. Churches served as the center of social life for free African Americans.

2. Free African Americans faced constant discrimination.

3. Many southern cities and states passed laws denying free African Americans the right to vote, travel freely, or hold certain jobs.


14.4 The Slave System

Objectives: Explain what work and daily life

were like for most slaves. Describe how slaves used family,

religion and other aspects of their culture to help them cope with the slave system.

Identify ways that enslaved African Americans challenged the slave system.


I. Slaves and Work


A. Hard Work

1. Most slaveholders tried to get as much work as possible out of slaves.

2. Slaves on small farms performed a variety of tasks.

3. On large plantations, most slaves performed specific tasks.


A. Hard Work

4. The majority of slaves did field work.

5. Drivers, who were sometimes slaves, made certain that slaves worked and followed orders and carried out punishment for slaves who did not.


B. Gang Labor

1. Most plantations used the gang labor system, in which all workers performed the same task at the same time.

2. Usually worked from sunup to sundown


I. Slaves and Work

C. Domestic slaves often received better food and clothing than field hands but also worked longer hours.


I. Slaves and Work

D. At times, slaves with skills such as blacksmithing were allowed to hire out their services, and some skilled slaves earned enough money to buy their freedom.


II. Life under Slavery



A. Slaveholders tended to view slaves as property, not as people.


B. Life’s Necessities

1. Slaves often tried to improve the poor clothing and small cabins they were given.

2. When allowed, many slaves supplemented their food rations by growing vegetables, raising chickens, gathering berries, or fishing.


C. Incentives to Work

1. Some planters offered better food or shelter to encourage slaves to follow rules.

2. Other planters used harsh punishments.



D. Many states had strict slave codes to control slaves and limit their actions.


III. Slave Culture


In 1763, two British astronomers, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, were hired to resolve a dispute between the In 1763, two British astronomers, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, were hired to resolve a dispute between the Calvert family, who owned the colony of Maryland, and the Penn family, who owned the colony of Pennsylvania, over Calvert family, who owned the colony of Maryland, and the Penn family, who owned the colony of Pennsylvania, over their respective boundary. In 1767, the their respective boundary. In 1767, the Mason-Dixon line Mason-Dixon line divided Maryland from Pennsylvania and Delaware to the divided Maryland from Pennsylvania and Delaware to the satisfaction of all concerned.satisfaction of all concerned.

Pennsylvania and neighboring New Jersey, thanks in large part to their Quaker citizenry, had all but abolished slavery. Pennsylvania and neighboring New Jersey, thanks in large part to their Quaker citizenry, had all but abolished slavery. Maryland and Delaware were the most northern of the slave-owning states. Thus, the Mason-Dixon Line has come to Maryland and Delaware were the most northern of the slave-owning states. Thus, the Mason-Dixon Line has come to

represent the boundary between the Free States of the Northern Nation and the Slave States of the Southern Nationrepresent the boundary between the Free States of the Northern Nation and the Slave States of the Southern Nation. .

www.nevadamercantile.com/. ../Section%2016A.htm

http://www.nevadamercantile.com/jparker/History%20101/Section%2016A.htm

A. Family Life

1. Slaves built their own communities and culture.

2. Family was the central institution of slave life.

3. Enslaved parents passed down family histories and used folktales, or stories with a moral, to teach children how to survive life as a slave.


B. Religion

1. Many slaves accepted Christianity, which offered a message of equality.

2. Spirituals, emotional Christian songs that blended African and European music, were expressions of slaves’ religious beliefs.


IV. Challenging Slavery


IV. Challenging Slavery

A. Slaves rebelled in small ways, such as running away for a few days.


B. Nat Turner’s Rebellion

1. Violent slave rebellions were rare, although white southerners feared them.

2. Nat Turner, a Virginia slave, led a violent slave revolt in 1831.

3. In Nat Turner’s Rebellion, a group of slaves killed about 60 white people.

4. The rebellion failed, Turner was executed, and states enacted stricter slave codes.


Source: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/assets/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_stono_2_e.jpg

The massacre during Nat Turner's Rebellion CREDIT: "Horrid Massacre in Virginia." Woodcut. . Illustration in Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical

Scene Which Was Witnessed in Southampton County. 1831. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

chapter 14: agricultural changes in the south 1790-1860 holt call to freedom

Documents

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cotton boom holt

freedom lecture notes

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cotton ginin

cotton fibers

cotton belt

cotton kingdomcotton