1. Masters and Slaves

2. Learning Objective
Students will analyze the impact of slavery on the Southern economy.

3. Key Questions
1.Why did cotton become the main crop of the lower south?
2.Who benefitted the most from slave labor?
3.How did slavery impact the Southern economy?

7. Different Perspectives of Slavery

8. Upper South - N. Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri.
Lower South – S. Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas

9. I. Slavery and the Southern Economy
1790 – 1860s- plantation agriculture expanded enormously.
Slaves constituted a much larger proportion of the states of the lower south than the upper south.

10. A. Economic Adjustment in the Upper South
Tobacco was the main slave-cultivated commodity of the upper south.
Tobacco was an extremely volatile crop.
Economic difficulties led to agricultural experimentation.
Diversified farming decreased the need for slaves.

11. B. The Rise of the Cotton Kingdom
The emergence of short-staple cotton changed the Southern economy.
The 1793 invention of the cotton gin removed a major production barrier.
Cotton was well suited to plantation labor.
Production moved Westward.
Slavery and cotton were linked.

12. Slavery in 1820

13. Slavery in 1860

14. C. Slavery and Industrialization
Some southerners worried that they were too dependent on Northern industry.
J.D.B. DeBow called for the south to industrialize.
Large planters were making far too much money to change.
Impact of one-crop agriculture -

15. D. The Profitability Issue
Some have argued that slavery was dying out.
Recent evidence shows that slavery was thriving in 1860.
Plantation owners were the only part of the population to profit greatly.
Only a small minority had the opportunity to attain wealth.