1. Tennessee’s Economy

2. Before Cash Crops
Tennessee’s economy focused around fur trading and survival.
Many subsistence farms in East
Grow enough food for family to eat

3. Cash Crop Boom
As settlers expanded west, they came across fertile land to grow cash crops
Crops grown to make money
Tobacco was major in the Northern part of middle and western Tennessee

5. Cotton
The southern portions of western and middle Tennessee became cotton country
All because of the Cotton Gin (made production easier and faster)
Memphis becomes Cotton capital of the South because it was a major port to take cotton North to northern factories

6. Rise in Slavery Slaves become necessary for cotton
Not everyone in TN for cotton
Elihu Embree’s The Emancipator: Anti slavery newspaper created by former slave owner
Francis Wright’s Nashoba Commune: Community for freed blacks
Education
Prepare them for freedom