The Economics of Slavery
Directions: Read the following passage. When you have finished, answer the questions from section 20.3
Only wealthier planters could afford to buy slaves. The great majority of white Southerners did not own slaves. Why, then, did the South remain so loyal to slavery? Part of the answer to that question lies in the growth of the Southern economy after the invention of the cotton gin in 1793.
The cotton gin made cotton a hugely profitable cash crop in the South. In 1790, the South produced just 3,000 bales of cotton. By the 1850s, production had soared to more than 4 million bales a year. Cotton brought new wealth to the South. Robert Fogel, a historian who has studied the economics of slavery, wrote,
If we treat the North and South as separate nations . . . the South would stand as the fourth most prosperous nation of the world in 1860 . . . more prosperous than France, Germany, Denmark, or any of the countries in Europe except England.
Whether they owned slaves or not, white Southerners understood that their economy depended on cotton. They also knew that cotton planters depended on slave labor to grow their profitable crop. For planters with few or no slaves, however, the prospect of owning slaves became less likely as the demand for, and the price of, slaves rose.
High prices were both good and bad for the men and women trapped in slavery. As prices went up, slaves became more valuable to their owners. This may have encouraged slaveholders to take better care of their workers. At the same time, the rising value of their slaves made slaveholders less willing to listen to talk of ending slavery. In their eyes, freeing their slaves could only mean one thing: utter financial ruin.
Directions: Read the information from the link and questions.
The Cotton Gin
Read the information from the following site.
Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin
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Why did the Cotton Gin make so much money?
Why did Eli Whitney get a patent for his invention?
How would American history be different if the cotton gin was never invented?
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