Georgia Cotton Kingdom

The cotton gin and slaves has quite an infamous relationship with each other since the device was invented. Since the cotton gin was created to make separating the cotton seeds from the bolls easier, countless think that it alleviated the workload of the slaves, but this is pure speculation. The cotton gin supported the growth of slavery in the south. Although the north contained free states, they still benefitted from the cotton industry.

 

 

Cotton was a stagnating force in the trade business, meaning it was not popular due to the time and effort put into production. Also, farmers started to spend more money maintaining the slaves than the profits they were making from the cotton. However, due to the invention of the cotton gin, the rate of production of cotton multiplied. Since the separation of the seeds and bolls became quicker, there was a need to pick more cotton. The job obviously fell to the cheap and hardworking labor: the Slaves.

           

 

Slaves were known to be an extremely valuable source of labor, even more so than their white counterparts. At some point during the Civil War, in South Carolina, an experiment was being tested to see how their white counterparts would perform in comparison to the African American slaves. The difference between the two was that the white counterparts were paid employees. The difference in production speeds were like night and day. The white employees could not come close to the cotton picking speeds of that of the slaves. It was obvious to them that the slaves are the more valuable workers.

 

 

In the Southern states, due to the cotton gin and the rise of the Cotton Kingdom, the number of slaves grew significantly. From 1790 to 1810, the number of slaves almost doubled, from about 657,000 slaves to about 1.3 million. Keep in mind that 1810 was not a peak production year, in fact, it was nowhere close to the peak production in the years to come.

     

     

The number of slaves were not the only factor about slaves that rose. As the value of cotton grew, so did the value of slaves. Slaves were such an appreciated commodity that people in the old South states, whose soil had run dry of minerals, were still considered wealthy and well off. This was due to their ownership of slaves. Even if the plantation owners could not produce anymore crops like tobacco or cotton, the owners can still sell their slaves to the new South for a large sum of money. During the earlier half of the 1800s, a normal slave could be worth upwards of 400-500 dollars while the “good” slaves could be sold upwards of 700-800 dollars. It is a tragedy and strange contradiction to see how plantation owners could easily harm priceless “products.” It is no surprise to say slaves were a massive part of the United States’ economy during this time period before the Civil War. Slaves alone were a third of the U.S. economy. In 1850, slaves were worth almost 2 billion dollars.