Disaster of Innovation (modified from source) Directions: Read excerpt and answer questions below each reading.

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1 Disaster of Innovation (modified from source) Directions: Read excerpt and answer questions below each reading. Eli Whitney patented his cotton engine, or gin, in A mechanical device to separate cotton fibers from cotton seed, it dramatically lowered the cost of producing cotton fiber. Formerly, workers (usually slaves) had separated the seeds from the lint by hand, painstaking work that required hours of work to produce a pound of lint. By mechanizing the process, the gin could produce more than 50 pounds of lint per day. Cotton fabric, formerly quite expensive due to the high cost of production, became dramatically cheaper, and cotton clothing became commonplace. In the early decades of the 19th century, Southern farmers changed more and more of their farming into highly profitable cotton production, and large-scale plantation agriculture became common in the Deep South states of Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. 1) What effect did the cotton gin have on the price of cotton? What did this effect have on the use of cotton? The gin s effect on the economy and on the lives of the slaves who made up a significant part of that economy was complex. The cotton gin freed slaves from the hard labor of separating seeds from the lint by hand. At the same time, the dramatically lowered cost of producing cotton fiber, the increase in the amount of cotton fabric demanded by textile mills, and the increasing popularity of large-scale plantation agriculture resulted in a dramatic increase in the demand for more slaves to work those plantations. Overall, the slave population in the South grew from 700,000 before Whitney s patent to more than three million in 1850 striking evidence of the changing Southern economy and its growing dependence on the slave system to keep the economy running. 2) What effect did the creation of the cotton gin have on slavery? Cotton growing proved especially well-suited to slave labor. A relatively delicate plant, growing and harvesting cotton was a labor-intensive process. On large Southern plantations, much of that labor was provided by slaves working in gangs. Gang labor fit the slave system particularly well: dozens of slaves collected into a work crew could be supervised by a single white overseer, which made for more efficient work. Unlike solitary jobs like shepherding, which made constant supervision of individual slave workers extremely difficult from a practical standpoint, gang labor in the cotton fields allowed one overseer to supervise (and, when necessary, to discipline and punish) large numbers of slaves simultaneously. 3) What was gang labor? Why was gang labor a positive for slave owners?

2 On large cotton plantations both the work and the punishments were constant and unforgiving. During the height of harvesting season, slaves worked from sun up to sundown; when the moon was full, they worked into the night as well. Slave owners varied in their reputations for physical violence, but none avoided punishment completely in the quest to extract more labor from their slaves. Beatings and whippings were frequently used to coerce un-compliant slaves; slaves who resisted labor or attempted to escape were punished with mutilation, sale away from their families, and occasionally death. 4) Describe how slaves were treated. There is no simple way to determine whether and how the cotton gin affected the lives of individual slaves. It is possible that the adoption of the gin made the working hours of a few individual slaves somewhat less difficult. However, given the barbarity of slavery generally rampant abuse, the separation of families, lives of forced labor in acute deprivation, and the overarching dehumanization that the system enforced it seems clear that any invention that encouraged the growth and expansion of the institution increased the misery of slaves. Given the cotton gin s effects on the spread of large-scale cotton agriculture and the resultant growth in the institution of slavery in the first half of the 19th century, it is difficult to portray its introduction as anything other than a disaster from the perspective of enslaved African- Americans. 5) Why can the creation of the cotton gin be considered a disaster for enslaved African- Americans? Source: About the author: Historian Christopher Hamner teaches at George Mason University, serves as Editor- in-chief of Papers of the War Department, , and is the author of Enduring Battle: American Soldiers in Three Wars,

3 The Effects of the Cotton Gin After the invention of the cotton gin, the yield of raw cotton doubled each decade after Demand was fueled by other inventions of the Industrial Revolution, such as the machines to spin and weave it and the steamboat to transport it. By mid-century America was growing threequarters of the world's supply of cotton, most of it shipped to England or New England where it was manufactured into cloth. During this time tobacco fell in value, rice exports at best stayed steady, and sugar began to thrive, but only in Louisiana. At mid-century the South provided three-fifths of America's exports -- most of it in cotton. However, like many inventors, Whitney (who died in 1825) could not have foreseen the ways in which his invention would change society for the worse. The most significant of these was the growth of slavery. While it was true that the cotton gin reduced the labor of removing seeds, it did not reduce the need for slaves to grow and pick the cotton. In fact, the opposite occurred. Cotton growing became so profitable for the planters that it greatly increased their demand for both land and slave labor. In 1790 there were six slave states; in 1860 there were 15. From 1790 until Congress banned the importation of slaves from Africa in 1808, Southerners imported 80,000 Africans. By 1860 approximately one in three Southerners was a slave. Because of the cotton gin, slaves now labored on ever-larger plantations where work was more regimented and relentless. As large plantations spread into the Southwest, the price of slaves and land inhibited the growth of cities and industries. In the 1850s seven-eighths of all immigrants settled in the North, where they found 72% of the nation's manufacturing capacity. The growth of the "peculiar institution" was affecting many aspects of Southern life. Source: 1) What other inventions of the Industrial Revolution increased the demand for cotton? 2) Why did these inventions increase demand for cotton?

4 Sound Recording Analysis Worksheet: Interview With Fountain Hughs Step 1: Pre-listening: Whose voices will you hear on this recording? What is the date of the recording? Where was this recording made? Step 2: Listening What type of sound recording is it?: Policy Speech Congressional Testimony News report Interview Entertainment broadcast Press conference Convention proceedings Campaign speech Arguments before a court Panel discussion Other Unique Qualities of the recording: Music Live broadcast Narrated Special sound effects Background sounds What is the tone of this recording?: Step 3: Post-Listening List three things in this sound recording that you think are important: Why do you think the original broadcast was made and for what audience? List two things this sound recording tells you about life in the United States at the time it was made: 1. 2.

5 THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY IN AMERICA: Facts and Figures Using the following website: Look through the data on the Atlantic Slave Trade and answer the following questions in complete sentences. 1. Which European country transported the most slaves? 2. How many slaves were delivered to the United States? 3. What was the total number of slaves that left African ports? 4. Where did most slaves end up in the Americas? 5. What country was the last to abolish (end) slavery? 6. What U.S. Census year had the highest number of slaves? 7. What U.S. Census year had the highest percentage of blacks (free and slaves) in the population? In your own words: What did you find most surprising, or what caught your eye and why, after looking through the data on the Atlantic Slave Trade? Write 2-3 sentences to articulate your thought.