Southern Agriculture Flashcards

Importance of Southern Agriculture

• Agriculture was vital in the South, supplying essential resources for the industrialized North.
• The Southern economy was heavily reliant on cotton and slave labor for its prosperity.

Cotton Gin and Its Impact

• The cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, revolutionized cotton processing by using a spiked cylinder to efficiently remove seeds from cotton fibers.
• This invention made cotton processing approximately 50 times faster than manual methods.

Slave Labor and Cotton Production

• The demand for cotton led to an increase in slavery; more slaves equated to greater cotton production.
• By 1860, there were about 4 million slaves in the South, a significant increase from approximately 698,000 in 1790.

Economic Dynamics of Cotton

• Slave prices escalated significantly, rising 10-20 times over the years.
• Cotton production surged from 500,000 pounds in 1790 to ten times that amount by 1820, making it the greatest source of wealth in America.

Wealth Distribution

• Cotton served as a financial boon for bankers and shipowners in the North and plantation owners in the South.
• Plantation life for owners was characterized as living in "the cotton kingdom."

Southern Farming Landscape

• While cotton dominated, less than half of Southern farmers owned slaves; most engaged in subsistence farming, growing corn and raising hogs and chickens.
• States like Alabama and Mississippi were cotton-dependent, but not all Southern states followed this pattern.

Slavery and Control

• Southerners feared that reduced control over slaves could lead to uprisings.
• Defending slavery, they argued it was more humane compared to Northern free labor, as slaves were not burdened by unemployment.

Free African Americans

• Only 6% of African Americans in the South were free, many of whom purchased their freedom, but faced constant risks of being kidnapped and sold back into slavery.
• Free African Americans faced numerous legal restrictions: they could not vote, serve on juries, or send their children to public school.

Contributions by Innovators

• Norbert Rillieux developed a new method to refine sugar, while Henry Blair invented a seed planting device that lessened the time required for sowing.

Slave Codes and Rebellion

• Slave codes were laws that controlled every aspect of enslaved individuals' lives, treating them as property rather than people.
• Most slaves worked as farmhands, suffering extreme workloads, often to the brink of death, and punishment was typically meted out through whipping.

Slave Resistance

• Slaves could rebel in subtle ways: working slowly, pretending not to understand instructions, or damaging equipment, while some displayed extraordinary courage by escaping.
• Nat Turner, in 1831, led a rebellion after claiming to have a vision, resulting in the deaths of 60 whites and prompting violent reprisals against innocent African Americans.

Cultural Expressions

• Spirituals emerged as a form of religious folk songs, blending biblical themes with the experiences and hardships of slavery, reflecting the deep cultural heritage of enslaved people.