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History of cotton in human society
History of cotton in human society
Cotton and industrialization in history
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ENVCUL Module 7 Discussion Assignment
Question #4
Eugene Genovese’s argument of soil depletion in the South being caused by slavery and the plantation system is four-pronged. Genovese says lack of crop rotation, due to the monocrop economy of cotton, lack of fertilizer use, poor agricultural tools, and carelessness in slaves all contributed to soil exhaustion (239). All these factors affected each other.
Genovese says rotation of staple crops with alfalfa, clover, and legumes could have restored Southern soils but most planters stuck solely to their cash crop. This was due to general unwillingness and/or budgeting off land for crop rotation wasn’t economically viable (241). Lack of liquid capital meant limited funds for buying fertilizer,
Slavery is an issue that continues to be discussed today, and for most Americans, the main reason that sparked the Civil War. Both authors agree that slavery was morally wrong, and it almost brought the Union to its knees while trying to rid the nation of it. However, both authors have very distinct thoughts and reasons for it. While Stanley Elkins’ Slavery has a more personal and opinionated version, James McPherson’s interpretation in Ordeal by Fire is based on facts. McPherson employs the use of graphics and charts to illustrate and quantify the findings about slavery in his book. His writings are based on the economic factors that made slavery the main force for prosperity in the South. Cotton production had become the main source
Through the period of 1865-1900, America’s agriculture underwent a series of changes .Changes that were a product of influential role that technology, government policy and economic conditions played. To extend on this idea, changes included the increase on exported goods, do the availability of products as well as the improved traveling system of rail roads. In the primate stages of these developing changes, farmers were able to benefit from the product, yet as time passed by, dissatisfaction grew within them. They no longer benefited from the changes (economy went bad), and therefore they no longer supported railroads. Moreover they were discontented with the approach that the government had taken towards the situation.
“The contrast in the relative prominence of slavery between the Upper South and the Lower South reflects the adverse health conditions and arduous labor requirements of lowland rice cultivation, whereas tobacco farming continued to be attractive to free family farmers as well as to slave owners”(Engerman, Sutch, & Wright, 2004). The lower South depended on their slaves more than the Upper because they were in the process of cropping tobacco. The Upper South had to keep up with the lower south, because they had to focus on their slave trade that would build and expand their plantations. During this era, the diverse between these two regions were more concerned with the values of slaves. The values of slave price can increase because of high demands between the upper and the lower South. As the upper South was coming up short, the slave profession took off. The slave profession helped the Upper South, yet there were numerous deformities. The slave percentage was at the end of its usefulness of significance “in the Upper South” significance it had a weaker understanding of community reliability than in the cotton areas. This made the upper south separate on what the future may hold. It was not clear on whether if the future was based on the Deep South’s financial growth between the North and the
In the South, however, the economy was predominantly agricultural. Cotton and tobacco plantations relied heavily on the free labor of slaves for their economic prosperity. They saw the urbanization and industrialization of the North, and the economic connection between the North a...
Between 1800 and 1860 slavery in the American South had become a ‘peculiar institution’ during these times. Although it may have seemed that the worst was over when it came to slavery, it had just begun. The time gap within 1800 and 1860 had slavery at an all time high from what it looks like. As soon as the cotton production had become a long staple trade source it gave more reason for slavery to exist. Varieties of slavery were instituted as well, especially once international slave trading was banned in America after 1808, they had to think of a way to keep it going – which they did. Nonetheless, slavery in the American South had never declined; it may have just come to a halt for a long while, but during this time between 1800 and 1860, it shows it could have been at an all time high.
This prompted the development of “free soil,” in which Northerners opposed the expansion of slavery. Southerners viewed free soil as a threatening policy primarily because of the off balance that new free states that were being admitted to the US would cause between the more unequal slave states’ representation in Congress. Southerners believed that if outnumbered to free states in Congress, laws would be passed to abolish slavery in the South, thus causing economic downfall in the
The nature of the Southern Plains soils and the periodic influence of drought could not be changed, but the technological abuse of the land could have been stopped. This is not to say that mechanized agriculture irreparably damaged the land-it did not. New and improved implements such as tractors, one-way disk plows, grain drills, and combines reduced plowing, planting, and harvesting costs and increased agricultural productivity. Increased productivity caused prices to fall, and farmers compensated by breaking more sod for wheat. At the same time, farmers gave little thought to using their new technology in ways to conserve the
Also, in the South, it was hard, rough work in the hot sun and very few whites were willing to do the work, therefore, most plantation owners purchased slaves to work the land. The plantation owner gave the slaves shelter and a small food allowance as a salary. Thereby, the plantation owner "saved" his money to invest in more land, which of course required more slaves to continue to yield a larger profit. An economic cycle was created between plantation owner and slave, one that would take generations to end. Slaves were now a necessity on the larger plantations to work the fields.
The country at the time was in the deepest and soon to be longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world and this caused years of over-cultivation of wheat, because “during the laissez-faire, expansionist 1920’s the plains were extensively and put to wheat - turned into highly mechanized factory farms that produced highly unprecedented harvests” (Worster 12). The farmer’s actions were prompted by the economic decline America was facing. With the economy in a recession, farmers were looking for a way to make a living and in 1930 wheat crops were becoming very popular. In 1931 the wheat crop was considered a bumper crop with over twelve million bushels of wheat. Wheat was emerging all over the plains.
Slavery was the main resource used in the Chesapeake tobacco plantations. The conditions in the Chesapeake region were difficult, which lead to malnutrition, disease, and even death. Slaves were a cheap and an abundant resource, which could be easily replaced at any time. The Chesapeake region’s tobacco industries grew and flourished on the intolerable and inhumane acts of slavery.
Slavery was an integral part of the Lower Southern economy and agricultural production. In his essay, “The Domestic Slave Trade,” historian Steven Deyle discusses the changing demand of slavery in America. Changes of agricultural production resulted in a surplus of slaves in some regions, such as the Chesapeake, however, with the invention of the cotton gin in 1792, an “almost insatiable demand for slaves developed in the new cotton states.” This new demand of slaves helped facilitate the domestic slave trade in America, and served as a new source of slaves, as all importation of slaves was ended in 1808. These slaves that were sold from the Upper South to the Lower South, therefore, were often born in America, guaranteeing a “steady supply
“Farming techniques such as strip cropping, terracing, crop rotation, contour plowing, and cover crops were advocated.” ("About the Dust Bowl")These new techniques were advocated in order to try and prevent more dust from getting picked up by wind and starting the dust storm again. “But for years, farmers had plowed the soil too fine, and they contributed to the creation of the Dust Bowl.”(Ganzel) This was a big mistake farmers had made. This was one of the huge factors in contributing to the Dust Bowl. This has definitely changed now. “Now, many farmers are learning how to raise crops without tilling their fields at all. (Ganzel) Farmers now not tilling their fields at all is a new farming
Former slave owners needed a way to get cheap labor, and the black population needed farmable land, labor, and money. This conflict resulted in a practice called sharecropping, sharecropping is a system where black laborers would rent farm land from former owners in exchange for a certain amount of crops at the end of the year: a swindling process that would be detrimental to the black farming community. Sharecropping increased the black community’s reliance on their former owner’s farm land, and this harmed the southern economy greatly: sharecropping made the south rely more on cotton and agriculture just as the price of these goods was decreasing further harming the economy. While the black community gained individual freedom from their owners in their daily lives they still had to repay at the end of the year, this was hard to do considering the cost of seeds, tools, and food for yourself. Sharecropping increased dependency in all the wrong places on all the wrong things, free slaves needed new land and independence from their former owners and sharecropping did the exact opposite. Although the south’s black community suffered greatly with heavy debt the southern whites relied on the free labor that came with slavery before the Civil War
We are able to see the 1965 version of a midwest field in Ellen’s picture, and then what we can assume is a pretty current day image in Gary’s. Ellen’s image shows the land when people were still not very concerned with keeping the integrity and as much natural aspects as they could. Gary’s image is showing a much more conscious idea of farming. There are slight rolling hills, where no one has attempted to flatten out to an unnatural state for the area. There is also a lot more grass and wild flowers in the ditches to help naturally catch runoff. It just seems like in Gary’s picture they are less concerned with fighting nature to get that extra few feet of profitable land, and instead letting nature peek through and do what it is naturally good at. Seeing pictures of the new prairies that are being constructed, as well as the difference in the land from 1965 to 2004 shows that our land is still pretty resilient and is able to bounce back with a bit of
Originally the United States implemented a plan that would adjust supply and demand by removing the amount of tillable cropland. Stated by Johnson and Clark (n.d.) by the late 1930s the newly implemented policy expanded to include conservation producers to shift from soil-depleting to soil-building crops. During this stretch World War II had started to progress causing a swing of high production to support the demand of war. After agriculture commodities surged into overdrive in the mid-1950s the United States implemented the soil bank. Considering the elevated commodity prices and overproduction of land, the idea was to deter farmers from continuing. Production once again exploded when the golden years of agriculture, enhanced in the mid-1970s. Long term land programs wouldn’t be implemented again until 1985. According to Johnson and Clark (n.d.) the Food Security Act of 1985 established the CRP. The Conservation Reserve Program transformed over several decades, especially after the re-authorization of the CRP program under the 1990 FACT