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Impact Of The Cotton Industry In The Antebellum Period Of South Carolina

1786 Words8 Pages

In the antebellum period of South Carolina, cotton took complete control. Both Inland and Island farmers farmers relied on cotton thanks to the textile industry. After the invention named the cotton gin was invented, the cotton industry was changed forever. This new era had a good effect on the trade between other countries/states and the South. However, these new advancements ended up affecting the majority of the population, the slaves, the worst. More and more plantations showed up, defining this plantation life as a whole new culture for the South. Overall, thanks to trade between plantations and textile mills, the¨king¨ (cotton) spread over half the world's population, affecting them as well. Firstly, cotton began to gain popularity …show more content…

The cotton gin not only completely transformed cotton exports, it also affected farms. At first, there were only a small amount farms with handful of slaves. After the spread of the cotton gin, thousands of slaves were used to picked cotton on a large about farms (which were also significantly bigger than before).“69,000 pounds” of cotton were produced in South Carolina in the year 1790 (South Carolina Journey, 119). Farmers didn’t stop there. In the year 1810, South Carolina was documented to have produced 50 million pounds of cotton. Soon, something called the ¨planter ideal” was created to express the farmerś new status and wealth gained from planting cotton (South Carolina Journey, 119). The planter ideal helped bring the upcountry and the lowcountry together due to the need for slaves in the upcountry. They began to share an opinion of slavery, and now the lowcountry had no need to worry about the compromise of 1808 and the reapportioning of upcountry representatives in the General Assembly getting rid of …show more content…

This system allowed slaves to plant crops of their own compact plot, help other slaves, or to relax once they finished their daily work. Most upcountry plantations had a system called the ¨gang system¨ (South Carolina Journey, 123). This system had slaves under supervision at all times with no breaks. Due to the constant work, slaves became mechanics, boatman, artisans, and carpenters. This meant certain jobs had certain freedoms. For example, slaves had limited supervision if they worked on the Savannah river as a boatman. If talented enough at these professions, some slave owners would allow their slaves to work jobs in exchange for money. This is how very few slaves became free. They paid their way off of the plantation and could even pay to free their family. Slaves used their quarters to create a little community between them. They would play music, told stories, and taught younger slaves things such as how to stay out of trouble. They would also have ceremonies where they would pray for freedom and ceremonies where the slaves could jump over a broom together to signify a marriage. Slaves would also try forms of resistance such as faking illnesses and working slower than their bodies allow them to. There were even slaves that either tried to start a rebellion or tried to run away. With this new threat of of rebellion, slave owners

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