Cotton Gin Dbq

The south, which was mostly agricultural, depended on the production of cotton. It was very important to their economy. Before Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin was used throughout the south, the United States produced about 750,000 bales of hay in 1830 (How the Cotton Gin). By 1850 it had increased to 2.85 billion bales of hay (How the Cotton Gin). Most of this was in the south because it had the weather conditions needed for cotton to grow. In 1793 Whitney saw the difficulty of taking out cotton seeds by hand (Cefrey 10-11). He decided to create a machine that could clean cotton faster than a human could. The Cotton Gin made the processing of cotton much faster and quicker. As a result of this, land owners were now able to have large cotton plantations

More states wanted to be free from slavery. When Henry Clay adopted the Missouri Compromise the free states and slave states were not equal any more (Kelly). This made the north and the south start arguing about slavery. Free African Americans in the north would work in factories and gain very little money. They had to supply themselves with their own food, clothes, and shelter. If they did not show up to work they would get fired. The South believed that working on a plantation was better than a factory because the slave owners supplied them with clothes, food, and shelter. Also they could never lose their jobs. Slavery made the South very wealthy after the creation of the Cotton Gin. Some slaves were beginning to try to escape. Others would purposely work slower or they would fight their slave owners to rebel against them. Later on, a law was passed that slaves could no longer be brought to America. They were also allowed to go back home but they did not want to go they wanted to be free in

This angered the southern states because the Republican party was against slavery and they thought they had no place in the union. By 1861 about seven states had left the union (The Civil War). These states then created the Confederate States of America (The Civil War). Lincoln declared that maintaining the union was his responsibility and he said that he was not going to end slavery or get rid of the Fugitive Slave Law (The Civil War). This horrified African Americans and later the Civil War had begun. African Americans wanted to join the fighting to end slavery. Fugitive slaves who took part in the war were declared free. The civil war was a fight against slavery and Frederick Douglass believed it was the ending of slavery. Many African American men wanted to enlist for the war. They faced a lot of discrimination and segregation; also they were paid less than white soldiers (The Civil War). With many African Americans fighting in the war rich planters became poor and the south suffered a food shortage. The South’s economy was very bad and the southerners were desperate for