The Impact of the Combination of Slavery and the Cotton Gin on Southern Cotton Production
Agriculture in the South is different from other regions because it benefits from the warm weather and the amount of land resources it possesses. More importantly, it was possible to grow crops in the South on a large scale with the benefit that the cost of slaves was lower than that of hired labor. The agricultural production in the South was mainly focused on crops such as cotton, tobacco and sugar. The combination of the use of slaves and the cotton gin acted as a catalyst to improve the overall production of cotton in the South.
Slavery is defined as “a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work (Brace, 162).” Slaves’ rights were stifled because they were bought. They could not leave, refuse to work, nor demand compensation for their work. Throughout history, slavery was recognized by many societies, especially during the 18th and 19th century in the Southern United States. The use of slaves in cotton industry boosted the production of cotton.
Slavery becomes a controversial issue when people talk about human rights. They might argue that slaves were traded as commodities and that they had no freedom. Clearly treating people as slaves was wrong because the essence of human nature is freedom and those slaves’ rights were stifled. Nevertheless, there certainly were economic advantages to using slaves in the South. Slavery was a double-edged sword; although the Southern economy stifled slaves’ rights, their labor boosted the economy as a whole. Slavery was considered to be a profitable system by economists and historians because the use of slaves compared with the use of indentured labor, which generated more profit for farmers. First, slaves in the South made production more efficient. The Gang System involved groups of slaves performing tasks under the eye of a supervisor. If a slave worked less than he should have, a supervisor would punish him. As a result, slaves in the South working under the Gang System made Southern farms thirty-five percent more efficient than Northern farms. (Engerman, 41). Second, the price of slaves was determined by many different factors such as sex, age, and height. Female slaves would cost more than male slaves because they had the potential to bear children and produce more slaves. During the 19th century, after the Civil War, the general price of slaves dropped. Thus, allowing Southern farmers, who used slaves, to generate a higher profit from the dropping price of slaves.
Slavery becomes a controversial issue when people talk about human rights. They might argue that slaves were traded as commodities and that they had no freedom. Clearly treating people as slaves was wrong because the essence of human nature is freedom and those slaves’ rights were stifled. Nevertheless, there certainly were economic advantages to using slaves in the South. Slavery was a double-edged sword; although the Southern economy stifled slaves’ rights, their labor boosted the economy as a whole. Slavery was considered to be a profitable system by economists and historians because the use of slaves compared with the use of indentured labor, which generated more profit for farmers. First, slaves in the South made production more efficient. The Gang System involved groups of slaves performing tasks under the eye of a supervisor. If a slave worked less than he should have, a supervisor would punish him. As a result, slaves in the South working under the Gang System made Southern farms thirty-five percent more efficient than Northern farms. (Engerman, 41). Second, the price of slaves was determined by many different factors such as sex, age, and height. Female slaves would cost more than male slaves because they had the potential to bear children and produce more slaves. During the 19th century, after the Civil War, the general price of slaves dropped. Thus, allowing Southern farmers, who used slaves, to generate a higher profit from the dropping price of slaves.
The South is moving from solely using slaves to the combination of using the cotton gin and slaves. The agricultural technology was far more developed in the South and represented an economic advantage over the North (Gavin, 205). Eli Whitney was indispensable to the production of cotton in the South. He was the third best-known American inventor, just after Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham. The inventor of the cotton gin, Whitney was born in 1765 in Westborough Massachusetts as the oldest child in his family. His stepmother opposed him attending college, and he worked as a farm laborer and a school teacher to save money. After graduating from Yale University, he accepted a teaching position in South Carolina because there were no jobs for engineer. Later in his life, when his teaching job fell through, his friend Greene invited him to see the Southern plantation, known as Mulberry Grove, near Savannah Georgia and Whitney learned about cotton production, especially the difficulties Southern farmers had, such as using hands to separate cotton fibers was extremely difficult for Southern famers and the slaves. Eli Whitney told a story wherein he was pondering an improved method of seeding the cotton when he was inspired by observing a cat attempting to pull a chicken through a fence, and could only pull through some of the feathers. The invention of the cotton gin had revolutionized the way cotton was harvested and reinvigorated slavery in the South by making cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States.
The cotton gin is “a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation (Roe Joseph Wickham, 145).” The word gin is short for engine. The process to separate seeds from cotton fibers was extremely labor intensive in the past because cotton plants contained seeds that were very difficult to separate from soft fibers. The majority of the farmers who grew cotton had to clean the cotton by hand painstakingly. The average cotton picker could remove the seeds from only about one pound per day. After the invention of the cotton gin, it could generate up to fifty five pounds of cotton per day.
Surprisingly, the cotton gin, a labor-saving machine, helped preserve slavery in the U.S. agriculture economy. Before 1790s, neither of the production was profitable due to the difficulties of removing the seeds. After the invention of the first cotton gin in 1793, growing cotton with slaves became highly profitable and became the dominant of the Southern society. The increasing of the production of cotton had a significant impact on the Southern economy. The increasing demand for cotton from European countries and the northern regions lead the price of cotton to increase sharply. The family who owned slaves could make more money by producing larger amount of cotton. As a result, they could buy more land and slaves to increase the production of cotton even further, and this action would keep the slavery system continuing.
The use of the combination of slaves and cotton gin had a positive impact on the cotton production and boosted the Southern economy as well as the U.S. economy as a whole. Rather than using large sum of money hiring experts to operate the cotton gin, Southern farmers would use slaves to operate the machine and thus lower the cost of the production of cotton. Using slaves to operate the cotton gin made cotton became a profitable crop; cotton export from the United States increased sharply from less than 500,000 pounds in 1793 to 93 million pounds by 1810 ("U.S. Department of the Treasury"). The cotton production actually increased from 1820 to 1860, cotton output rose by a factor of 11.5, the slave population by 2.5, and output per slave by a factor of 4.6 ("U.S. Department of the Treasury"). Unlike other agricultural products, cotton could be stored for a long period of time so that it could be shipped through long distance. As a result, cotton in the South took over the majority of the country’s total exports and the government could use the money to pay for the country’s imports and all the benefits were created due to the combination of slaves and the cotton gin.
The use of the combination of slaves and cotton gin had a positive impact on the cotton production and boosted the Southern economy as well as the U.S. economy as a whole. Rather than using large sum of money hiring experts to operate the cotton gin, Southern farmers would use slaves to operate the machine and thus lower the cost of the production of cotton. Using slaves to operate the cotton gin made cotton became a profitable crop; cotton export from the United States increased sharply from less than 500,000 pounds in 1793 to 93 million pounds by 1810 ("U.S. Department of the Treasury"). The cotton production actually increased from 1820 to 1860, cotton output rose by a factor of 11.5, the slave population by 2.5, and output per slave by a factor of 4.6 ("U.S. Department of the Treasury"). Unlike other agricultural products, cotton could be stored for a long period of time so that it could be shipped through long distance. As a result, cotton in the South took over the majority of the country’s total exports and the government could use the money to pay for the country’s imports and all the benefits were created due to the combination of slaves and the cotton gin.
Work Cited
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Joseph, Wickham. English and American Tool Builders. 1st. Yale University, 1916. 145. Web.
Laura, Brace. The Politics of Property: Labor, Freedom and Belonging. Edinburgh University, 2004. 162. Web.
"Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance." U.S. Department of the Treasury. 290. (1895): n. page. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.
Robert, Fogel, and Engerman Stanley. Times on the cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery. 1st. Little, Brown and Company, 1974. 41. Web.
Samuel, Morse. Eli Whitney. 1822. Photograph. Yale University Art GalleryWeb. 8 Nov2013.<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Eli_Whitney_by_Samuel_Finley_Breese_Morse_1822.jpeg/464px-Eli_Whitney_by_Samuel_Finley_Breese_Morse_1822.jpeg>.
The First Cotton Gin. 1869. Photograph. n.p. Web. 8 Nov 2013. <http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3c00000/3c03000/3c03800/3c03801v.jpg>.
Tom, Murphy. A cotton gin at display. 2007. Photograph. n.p. Web. 8 Nov 2013. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Cotton_gin_EWM_2007.jpg/800px-Cotton_gin_EWM_2007.jpg>.
Wright, Gavin. The Political Economy of the Cotton South: Households, Markets, and Wealth in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Norton Company, 1978. 205. Web.