1. Chapter 7, Section 3 The Plantation South p. 270-274
The invention of the cotton gin increases the South’s dependence on the labor of enslaved people.

2. 7.3 section focus question:
How did cotton affect the social and economic life of the South?

3. The Cotton Kingdom Textile boom in north increases demand for cotton.
Main Idea: As cotton production expands in the South (to supply the northern textile industry), planters increase their use of slave labor.
p. 271
Textile boom in north increases demand for cotton.
Southern states become devoted to cotton.
- Slave population increases to over 4 million
Greatest source of wealth in U.S: KING COTTON!
Who gets rich?
Southern planters
Northern mill owners, ship owners & banks.
How was the south able to keep up with the increased demand for cotton?

4. The Cotton Gin Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
a spiked cylinder to remove seeds from cotton fibers
Does the work of 50 people
Makes cotton growing very profitable
Price of slaves increases 10 or 20 times
“Cotton Kingdom” is dominated by rich
Most southerners grow corn, hogs or chickens, NOT slaveowners.
Cotton gin on display in Museum
File Patent for Eli Whitney’s cotton gin
March 14, 1794
Slaves working with a cotton gin

5. The Slavery Question Critics of Slavery: Defenders of Slavery:
Southern plantation owners fear weakening control over slaves might encourage violent uprisings.
Believe slavery is more humane than the wage labor system of the North.
Don’t have to worry about unemployment
Blacks were considered to be inferior to whites.
Slaves are often physically and mentally abused.
Employees can quit if conditions become too harsh.
No substitute for freedom.
Show “Plantation Life” video

6. African Americans in the South
Main Idea: Whether free or enslaved, African Americans in the South were subject to harsh rules and unequal treatment.
About 250,000 (6%) African-Americans in south are free
Some purchased freedom
Few did well
Southern laws deny basic rights to free blacks of the South
Excluded from all but menial jobs
Can’t vote, go to school, serve on juries, testify against whites, or travel freely
Risk being captured & sold into slavery
A few free blacks make contributions
- Like inventors Norbert Rillieux (sugar refining) & Henry Blair (seed-planting device)
Norbert Rillieux
-inventor

7. Life Under Slavery
Most (about 95%) of African-Americans in the south were slaves.
South passes slave codes
laws that controlled every aspect of slaves’ lives
Slaves viewed as valuable property:
- “…a slave by our code is not treated as a person but as a… thing…” Kentucky law
Some slaves are skilled, some work in owners’ homes, most do heavy farm labor.
Compose spirituals to provide hope.
religious folk songs that blend biblical themes with realities of slavery
Slave code for Washington D.C.

8. Resistance to Slavery
Some slaves work slowly, pretend not to understand, or break farm equipment, some flee
- Rebellion: Stono, S.C. ( Angolans)
1831: Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in Virginia.
uprising; rebellion
Claims to have visions from God encouraging violence against whites
- Revolt ends after about 60 white deaths.
Turner is captured 2 months later
- He is “tried”, hanged, and skinned
About 200 innocent (free & enslaved) African-Americans are killed in reprisals
New laws passed to restrict slaves, including a ban on literacy
Slaves caught reading are executed immediately (1829 – David Walker)
Slave owners’ worst nightmare
Nat Turner is captured by a farmer

9. 7.3 section focus question:
How did cotton affect the social and economic life of the South?
The invention of the cotton gin made growing cotton much more profitable, resulting in a need for more workers & increasing the South’s dependency on slavery.