Southern Agriculture

Fact: The basic and historic industry in the South has been agriculture. This fact has had an enormous bearing on the development of a distinctive regional culture and economy.

Native Americans Began practicing agriculture approx. 5,000 – 10,000 years ago Developed large communities; Cahokia, Illinois pop. 8,000 – 40,000; Moundville, Alabama pop. 1,000 – 10,000 Grew corn, squash, pumpkins, several varieties of beans, tobacco

The Colonial South Jamestown, Chesapeake settlements began cultivating tobacco very early Virginia, Maryland, Delaware Indentured servants Other cash crops included wheat, corn, hemp, flax, rice, sugar cane, cotton

Fact: Land was the necessary foundation for prosperity in the colonial South. Ownership of land meant voting rights, standing in the community, a greater degree of control over one’s destiny

Virginia’s slave laws of the mid/late 1600s Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676 Decrease in indentured servants Increased demand for African slaves Yeoman farmers opened up the frontier

Cattle ranching developed in Georgia Sea Island (long staple) cotton vs. upland (short staple) cotton Planters diversify: wheat, corn, oats, barley planted along with tobacco

The Antebellum Period Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, 1793 Increased global demand for cotton New England textile mills Indian Removal Act, 1830

Increased demand for slaves International slave trade banned by Congress, 1808 Cotton became dominant crop of Southern planters, farmers; “Cotton is King” Cotton became nation’s number one export

The Civil War Dependent on exporting cotton, South’s economy devastated by Union blockade South focused on feeding military Many yeoman farmers in army Livestock consumed by military

Reconstruction 3-4 million slaves freed; most stayed on land; farmed Sharecropping became widespread—black and white Livestock never recovered Cotton remained number one crop

The 20th Century Boll weevil arrived from Mexico c. 1890 in TX, in GA by 1920s Depression of 1921 Great Depression (1929-1941) Dust Bowl

Mechanization displaced many sharecroppers Rise of agribusiness Farmers’ Co-op Fewer, larger farms grow diverse crops Soybeans introduced, become popular