COTTON+GIN




 * CONTACT PERSON - DR. CHARLES CHAMBERLAIN, LOUISIANA STATE HISTORIAN ||

**//__Cotton gin__//** The cotton gin had a stronger effect on the south than on the north. In the southern states, crops could be planted, harvested, and sold year round. In the north crop season was only during the summertime of the year. During the winter the south could still produce crops because it was still humid. In the north it got colder and they could not produce crops during this season. When the cotton gin was made it was sold mainly in the south (as it was sold in the north as well). During the time before the gin was invented the leading “cash crops” were indigo and tobacco. After the gin was sold the leading crop became cotton which was usually not farmed because it wasn’t worth the time and money it took to make it. As many southern families owned slaves which would plant most of the crops. After the invention of the gin, slave owners produced more and more slaves to plant more and more cotton. Cotton became the leading cash crop and was planted on almost every farm in the south. Slave owners had many more slaves to house which in time produced more and more cotton which gave slave owners money to buy more slaves. It was an endless cycle that made more and more money in the south and they were out-doing the north in the north making the south the leading producer of most crops. The north got very upset over this as they were the leading crop producers in the nation. This was one of the reasons for the cause of the civil war. This shows that not just slavery was the cause of the civil war. Raymond Oller Mr. Zapico’s class 3-29-10

__Cotton Gin__

The cotton gin had a powerful effect on the south. When Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin it increased the production of cotton. Slaves could produce more cotton which made more money. Slave owners had extra money with which they could buy more slaves with. The more slaves they had, the more cotton they could prod uce. This eventually made them more money which was used to buy more slaves. The more slaves that they bought the more money they made which made cotton a leading cash crop. Before this invention indigo and tobacco were the leading cash crops but after the invention. One of the main reasons the north did not want slavery was because in the northern U.S.states the harvest season wasn’t as long as the southern harvest season. The north used to be the leading crop producer until the south jumped in. The north was troubled because the south was becoming the leading cotton producer in the world.

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