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The 18th century came with many technological advances that called for a larger work force. Britain had an increasing need for textile production. With new inventions the United States was able to compete in the cotton market with India. Technological inventions such as the cotton “gin” by Eli Whitney combined with rot-resistant cotton caused for an all-time high or exploitation of slave labor in the southern United States, mainly in the Carolinas. This increase of slave labor also brought along a backlash on the morality of slavery, leaving slave owners on the defensive. I found it interesting that slave owners used the bible to justify slavery, while abolitionists just the bible to condemn it. We can further make a connection that the ideas of the civil war were creeping up at the beginning of industrialization. This began a greater division between the North and the South.
My classmate, Vince Tursini discussed the importance that women played in the Mexican economy in his post on Chapter 5 of Caterina Pizzigoni’s, “The Life Within,” he says, “ Individual accounts of women capable of capitalizing on the labor and productivity are shown in the readings”. This type of capitalizing on labor and productivity is also show in Chapter 13 of the Atlantic world. As the south capitalized on slave labor, the north began to force on a “family system”, in which entire villages were surrounded by company owned farmland. In this system, men and the sons worked in the fields, while their wives and daughter worked on looms within the factory. This illustrated an awkward transition from farm life to an industrial economy. Women were now more likely to earn wages for their work, instead of just working on the family farm. This idea can also tie back to the evolution of white women article in which the theory on progressive gender roles and expectation of women’s’ work come into play. If there is an economic need for women outside of the house then it becomes okay for women to work. If the economic need did not arise they would have still been stuck in the home.