The Early Southern Economy & The Growth of Cotton

• Topic I: “The South’s Agricultural Economy”• 1. Southern Farmers originally grew: _________ ,

_________ ____________.• 2. After the Revolutionary War the price of these

crops ______________________.• 3. When crop prices began to fall many southerners

switched to crops like ___________ , that required less _____________.

• 4. When the demand for farm labor decreased , the _________ of slaves began to ___________________.

• 5. Northern States gradually began to _____________ ______________.

• 6. Before the Industrial Revolution slavery was in ___________________________________________

TobaccoRice Indigo

Declined or Went Down

WheatLabor or Workers

Value Decrease or go down

Outlaw Slavery

Declining or getting less important it was Dying!

• Topic II: “Whitney and the Cotton Gin”• 1. Southerner’s viewed cotton as a _________

___________.• 2. _________ __________ cotton grew well in

the south, but removing its ________ was hard work and was _________ consuming.

• 5. Before the Cotton Gin a worker could clean __________ pound a day.

CashCrop

Short StapleSeeds

Time

One

• 3. In 17___ Eli Whitney invents the _________. • 4. The Cotton Gin made the task of separating

seeds _______. This invention also __________ the demand for slaves.

93 Cotton Gin

Easy Increased

• 3. Before the Cotton Gin a worker could clean __________ pound a day, and after they could clean __________ pounds a day.

• Why did this Increase the Demand for Slaves if Cleaning became Easier?

FiftyOne

• Topic III: “The Cotton Boom”• 1. To grow Short-Staple cotton a farmer only needed _______and

_________.• 2. By 18__ the South was producing _____ ______ of all U.S.

cotton.• 3. Cotton represented more than ________ of all American

____________.• 4. The “Cotton Boom” ____________ the dependence on

_________ labor.• 5. The land from South Carolina to ___________ was called the

_______ _________ because it grew the largest amount of cotton in the U.S.

• 6. Cotton was better than wheat and other crops because it was __________to grow and market. Unlike food crops it could be ___________ for long periods of time, and was _____________ to transport.

• 7. A negative effect of the Cotton Boom is that farmers became too _____________ on only one crop.

land

labor60 two thirds

halfexports

increasedslave

Texascotton belt

easiercheaperstored/kept

reliant/focused