SECTION

1 Growth of the
Cotton Industry
TEKS 7C, 10A, 10B, 11A, 12A, 12B,
27A, 27D, 28A

What You Will Learn…

If YOU were there...
Main Ideas You are a field-worker on a cotton farm in the South in about 1800.
1. The invention of the cotton
Your job is to separate the seeds from the cotton fibers. It is dull,
gin revived the economy of
the South. tiring work because the tiny seeds are tangled in the fibers. Some-
2. The cotton gin created a cot-
times it takes you a whole day just to clean one pound of cotton!
ton boom in which farmers
grew little else. Now you hear that someone has invented a machine that can clean
3. Some people encouraged
cotton 50 times faster than by hand.
southerners to focus on other
crops and industries.
How might this machine change your life?

The Big Idea

The invention of the cotton gin
made the South a one-crop
economy and increased the
Building Background Sectional differences had always existed
need for slave labor. between different regions of the United States. The revolutionary
changes in industry and transportation deepened the differences
Key Terms and People between North and South. The South remained mainly agricultural.
cotton gin, p. 415 New technology helped the region become the Cotton Kingdom.
planters, p. 416
cotton belt, p. 416
factors, p. 417 Reviving the South’s Economy
Tredegar Iron Works, p. 419
Before the American Revolution, three crops dominated south-
ern agriculture—tobacco, rice, and indigo. These crops, produced
mostly by enslaved African Americans, played a central role in the
southern economy and culture.
Use the graphic organizer online to
After the American Revolution, however, prices for tobacco,
take notes on the causes of the
cotton boom in the South. rice, and indigo dropped. When crop prices fell, the demand for
and the price of slaves also went down. In an effort to protect their
incomes, many farmers tried, with little success, to grow other
crops that needed less labor. Soon, however, cotton would trans-
form the southern economy and greatly increase the demand for
slave labor.

Cotton Becomes Profitable

Cotton had been grown in the New World for centuries, but it had
not been a very profitable crop. Before cotton could be spun into
thread for weaving into cloth, the seeds had to be removed from
the cotton fibers.

414 Chapter 13
Cotton Gin
Connect to Science and Technology
Eli Whitney’s cotton gin enabled workers to easily
remove seeds from cotton fibers. The result was a
dramatic increase in cotton production in the South.
How did the cotton gin remove seeds from cotton fibers?

The operator turned

the crank.

The crank turned a roller

with teeth that stripped
the seeds away from the
cotton fiber.

Brushes on a second
roller lifted the seedless
cotton off the teeth of
the first cylinder and
dropped it out of the
machine.

A belt connected the

rollers so that they
would both turn when
the crank was turned.

Long-staple cotton, also called black-seed Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin

cotton, was fairly easy to process. Workers Northerner Eli Whitney finally patented such
The Impact

could pick the seeds from the cotton with Today

a machine in 1793. The year before, Whitney
relative ease. But long-staple cotton grew well The same patent
had visited a Georgia plantation owned by law that protected
in only a few places in the South. More com- Catherine Greene where workers were using Whitney’s inven-
mon was short-staple cotton, which was also a machine that removed seeds from long- tion of the cotton
known as green-seed cotton. Removing the gin protects the
staple cotton. This machine did not work rights of inventors
seeds from this cotton was difficult and time well on short-staple cotton, and Greene asked today.
consuming. A worker could spend an entire Whitney if he could improve it. By the next
day picking the seeds from a single pound of spring, Whitney had perfected his design for
short-staple cotton. the cotton gin, a machine that removes seeds
By the early 1790s the demand for Amer- from short-staple cotton. (“Gin” is short for
ican cotton began increasing rapidly. For engine.) The cotton gin used a hand-cranked
instance, in Great Britain, new textile facto- cylinder with wire teeth to pull cotton fibers
ries needed raw cotton that could be used for from the seeds.
making cloth, and American cotton produc- Whitney hoped to keep the design of the
ers could not keep up with the high demand gin a secret, but the machine was so useful that
for their cotton. These producers of cotton his patent was often ignored by other manu-
needed a machine that could remove the facturers. Whitney described how his inven-
seeds from the cotton more rapidly. tion would improve the cotton business.

The south 415

 “One man will clean ten times as much cotton as The Cotton Boom
he can in any other way before known and also Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin made
clean it much better than in the usual mode
cotton so profitable that southern farmers
[method]. This machine may be turned by water
abandoned other crops in favor of growing
or with a horse, with the greatest ease, and one
man and a horse will do more than fifty men cotton. The removal of Native Americans
with the old machines. ” opened up more land, while the develop-
ment of new types of cotton plants helped
—Eli Whitney, quoted in Eli Whitney and the Birth of
American Technology by Constance McLaughlin Green
spread cotton production throughout the
South as far west as Texas. This area of high
Whitney’s gin revolutionized the cot-
cotton production became known as the
ton industry. Planters — large-scale farmers
who held more than 20 slaves —built cotton
cotton belt .
Production increased rapidly—from
gins that could process tons of cotton much
about 2 million pounds in 1791 to roughly
faster than hand processing. A healthy crop
a billion pounds by 1860. As early as 1840,
almost guaranteed financial success because
the United States was producing more than
of high demand from the textile industry.
half of the cotton grown in the entire world.
R eading C heck Drawing Conclusions The economic boom attracted new settlers,
What effects did the cotton gin have on the built up wealth among wealthy white south-
southern economy? erners, and firmly put in place the institution
of slavery in the South.

The Cotton Kingdom

S
IN
TA
After the invention of the cotton gin, the amount of cotton pro-

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duced each year in the United States soared, as the chart below

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shows. The area of land devoted to growing cotton also increased VA MD

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dramatically between 1820 and 1860, as shown on the map. KY N Richmond
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U.S. Cotton Production, NC

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1800–1860 TN
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INDIAN SC
Cotton (in 100,000 bales)

24
TERRITORY
20 (Unorganized) AR
Charleston
GA
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16 AL
12 MS Savannah
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0 Cotton King Map locator (new reduced size)ATLANTIC
1800 1820 1840 1860 1st proof New
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Year
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ANALYSIS
M EX ICO
skill Interpreting Charts Extent of cotton
growing by 1820
80°W
1. In what region of the United States was Extent of cotton
the cotton belt? growing by 1860
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2. How many bales of cotton were 0 150 300 Miles

produced in 1860? 0 150 300 Kilometers

90°W

416
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Cotton Belt Cotton Trade
Cotton had many advantages as a cash crop. In an 1858 speech before the U.S. Senate,
It cost little to market. Unlike food staples, South Carolina politician James Henry Ham-
harvested cotton could be stored for a long mond declared, “Cotton is King!” With-
time. Because cotton was lighter than other out cotton, Hammond claimed, the global
staple crops, it also cost less to transport long economy would fail. He believed that south-
distances. ern cotton was one of the most valuable
Farmers eager to profit from growing cot- resources in the world. Southern cotton
ton headed west to find land. Farmers also was used to make cloth in England and the
began to apply scientific methods to improve North. Many southerners shared Hammond’s
crop production. Cotton had one disadvan- viewpoints about cotton. Southerner David
tage as a crop—it rapidly used up the nutri- Christy declared, “King cotton is a profound
ents in the soil. After a few years, cotton could [learned] statesman, and knows what mea-
make the land useless for growing anything. sures will best sustain [protect] his throne.”
Some agricultural scientists recommended The cotton boom made the South a major
crop rotation—changing the crop grown player in world trade. Great Britain became
on a particular plot of land every few years. the South’s most valued foreign trading
Different crops needed different nutrients, partner. Southerners also sold tons of cot-
so crop rotation would keep the land fertile ton to the growing textile industry in the
longer. Other agricultural scientists began to northeastern United States. This increased
study soil chemistry, in an effort to keep the trade led to the growth of major port cities
land rich and productive. in the South, including Charleston, South The Impact
As the cotton belt grew, farmers contin- Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; and New Today
ued trying to improve the crop. Agricultural Orleans, Louisiana. Almost half of the
scientists worked at crossbreeding short- In these cities, crop brokers called factors nation’s largest
ports are located
staple cotton with other varieties. As a result, managed the cotton trade. Farmers sold their in the South.
new, stronger types of cotton were soon cotton to merchants, who then made deals Combined, they
growing throughout the cotton belt. This led with the factors. Merchants and factors also ship more than
a billion tons of
to expansion of the cotton industry through arranged loans for farmers who needed to cargo each year.
the 1860s. buy supplies. They often advised farmers on
The cotton boom involved much more how to invest profits. Once farmers got their
than growing and harvesting cotton. Har- cotton to the port cities, factors arranged for
vested cotton had to be ginned, pressed transportation aboard trading ships.
into bales, and then shipped to market or to However, shipping cotton by land to port
warehouses. Special agents helped do every- cities was very difficult in the South. The few
thing from marketing cotton to customers to major road projects at the time were limited
insuring crops against loss or damage. Facto- to the Southeast. Most southern farmers had
ries were built to produce items needed by to ship their goods on the region’s rivers. On
cotton farmers, such as ropes to bale cotton. the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, flatboats and
Growing and harvesting cotton required steamboats carried cotton and other products
many field hands. Rather than pay wages to port. Eventually, hundreds of steamboats
to free workers, planters began to use more traveled up and down the mighty Mississippi
slave labor. Congress had made bringing River each day.
slaves into the United States illegal in 1808.
However, the growing demand for slaves led R eading C heck Identifying Cause and Effect
to an increase in the slave trade within the What effect did the cotton boom have on the slave
United States. trade within the United States?

The south 417

The South’s Cotton Economy
Eli Whitney’s cotton gin began the cotton boom. Soon, the Cotton King-
dom stretched across the South. For the cotton planters to succeed,
they had to get their cotton to market.

Enslaved African Americans did Cotton was shipped on river From southern ports, sailing
most of the planting, harvest- steamboats to major ports such ships carried the cotton to
ing, and processing of cotton. as Charleston. distant textile mills.

Other Crops and Industries Industry

Some leaders worried that the South was Many of the first factories in the South were
depending too much on cotton. They wanted built to serve farmers’ needs by processing
southerners to try a variety of cash crops and crops such as sugarcane. In 1803 the nation’s
investments. These leaders wanted the South first steam-powered sawmill was built in Don-
to become more self-sufficient, instead of rely- aldsonville, Louisiana. This new technology
ing on the North and foreign countries for enabled lumber companies to cut, sort, and
basic items. In addition to a more successful clean wood quickly.
economy, this kind of variety would make the By the 1840s, entrepreneurs in Georgia
South less susceptible to tariff policies. began investing in cotton mills. In 1840,
there were 14 cotton mills; by the mid-1850s,
Food and Cash Crops there were more than 50. A few mill owners
A cademic
One such crop was corn, the primary south- followed the model established by Francis
V ocabulary
primary ern food crop. By the late 1830s the top three Cabot Lowell. However, most built small-
main, most corn-growing states in the nation were all in scale factories on the falls of a river for water-
important power. A few steam-powered mills were built
the South. The South’s other successful food
crops included rice, wheat, and sugarcane. in towns without enough waterpower.
Production of tobacco, the South’s first Southerners such as Hinton Rowan Helper
major cash crop, was very time consum- encouraged industrial growth in the South.
ing because tobacco leaves had to be cured,
“We should . . . keep pace with the progress of
or dried, before they could be shipped to the age. We must expand our energies, and
market. In 1839 a slave discovered a way to acquire habits of enterprise and industry; we
improve the drying process. The faster cur- should rouse ourselves from the couch of las-
ing process increased tobacco production. situde [laziness] and inure [set] our minds to
Partly as a result of the cotton boom, thought and our bodies to action. ”
— Hinton Rowan Helper, The Impending Crisis of
hemp and flax also became major cash crops. the South: How to Meet It
Their fibers were used to make rope and sack-
cloth used to bundle cotton into bales.

418 Chapter 13
 Joseph R. Anderson followed Helper’s F OCUS ON
advice. In 1848 Anderson became the owner R EADING
What kind of Web
of the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, site would you
Virginia—one of the most productive iron look for to learn
works in the nation. It was the only factory more about the
Tredegar Iron
to produce bridge materials, cannons, steam Works?
A large amount of cotton was sold to textile mills
engines, and other products.
in the northeastern United States. Industry, however, remained a small part
of the southern economy. Southern industry
faced stiff competition from the North and
from England, both of which could produce
many goods more cheaply. And as long as
agricultural profits remained high, southern
investors preferred to invest in land.

R eading C heck Making Inferences Why

Textile mills in Great Britain were the largest for- were there fewer industries in the South?
eign buyers of southern cotton.

ANALYSIS SUMMARY AND PREVIEW You have read

skill Drawing Conclusions about how southern farmers worked to
Why do you think cotton was so important improve farming methods. In the next sec-
to the South’s economy?
tion you will read about the structure of
southern society.

Section 1 Assessment ONLINE QUIZ

Reviewing Ideas, Terms, and People Critical Thinking

1. a. Describe How did the cotton gin make process- 4. Identifying Cause and Effect Review your notes
ing cotton easier? on the causes of the cotton boom. Then add to your
b. Draw Conclusions Why had slavery been on the graphic organizer by identifying the effects of the
decline before the invention of the cotton gin? How cotton boom on the South.
did slavery change as a result of the cotton gin?
c. Predict How might the invention of the cotton Slavery
gin and the rise of cotton production and slavery
Cotton Boom
affect Southern society?
2. a. Identify What areas of the United States made Economy
up the cotton belt? What physical characteristics
helped define the area?
b. Evaluate Do you think the South should have Focus on Writing
paid more attention to its industrial growth? Why?
3. a. Describe What other crops and industries were 5. Noting Life on the Cotton Farm In your notebook,
encouraged in the South? note how Whitney’s gin changed life on the farm.
b. Make Inferences Why were some southern Also note other details about cotton farming you
leaders worried about the South’s reliance on cotton? could include in your sketch.

The south 419