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In Slavery’s Capitalism, the editors, Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman investigated the economic development of America during the 19th century by tying the “expansive and brutal system of human bondage” (book cover) to the rise of the Industrial Revolution, not only in America, but also in England. “cotton made by enslaved African Americans not only accounted for the majority of U.S. exports, but also helped to generate a transformation unprecedented in human history.” (pg. 12) The Industrial Revolution is majorly credited to the city of Manchester, where England’s cotton textile industry was centered, although the textile center in Lowell, Massachusetts also experienced increased production in cloth. By 1825 American planters dominated the world market in cotton, by growing and exporting this new tangible “gold.” Cloth, by way of cotton, became more available and fashionable.
How did all of this happen? The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 helped pull the seeds from cotton faster than hand labor could do it, but to cash in on this improvement, more fields needed to be cleared to grow more cotton. That required more slaves and slave owners. The “system of labor extraction” (pg. 33) was a new growing and labor- intensive method used by plantations in which a fast worker picked at top speed and set the pace for the rest of the workers in a cotton row. Stragglers or slow workers were whipped, or sometimes killed. “Enslaved migrants in new cotton fields quickly discovered that they had to adapt to what pushing men [slave owners] demanded, or face ruthless violence.” (Pg. 34) As the picking quotas for the slaves rose, so did the amount of cotton picked, which raised the amount of cotton exported to the textile mills of England.
As Indian land(s) and territories were taken, over one million black slaves were forced into these new Southern territories. This “labor extraction” system, soon “produced 80 percent of the cotton sold in Britain, the world’s central market.” (pg. 35) This system also made slave owners in the South very wealthy, and very powerful. From approximately 1800 to 1860, due to the labor extraction system, the amount of cotton produced in the United States increased from 20 million pounds to over two billion pounds, and the number of slaves in the United States increased from 50,000 to two million. (pg. 40) These increases matched the increased productivity in the spinning and weaving mills in Manchester, which experienced an approximate 400 percent increase and a 600 increase respectively from 1819 to 1860. (pg. 42) Once the Civil War was over, however, the system of labor extraction ended, and the cotton picking in the South declined and never fully recovered. (pg. 43)
The economic growth of America during this period resulted from the increase of slavery, the exorbitant amount of cotton picked on the plantations in the South, and the technological advancements made in the textile and weaving mills in England. However, the increased flow of material to England also resulted in many agricultural changes in America. The invention of the cotton gin started the escalation. New cotton seeds were introduced which increased the yield of cotton, and the labor extraction method assured increased goals in cotton picking. All of these changes brought new innovations in finance, plantation management and husbandry, accounting, and mechanical technology, bringing the Industrial Revolution to America.
As dshanebeck stated, after the War of 1812, the United States found itself in a position to be “recognized as an equal nation on the world stage.” Yet, as Gould stated last week, it was not until President James Monroe, the 5th President, that European acceptance officially began. As last week’s discussion also covered, Andrew Jackson’s excursion into Florida marked the beginning of the United States’ “official” expansion into newly acquired territories. It was these inroads and Jackson’s treatment of British agents caught on American lands that officially forced the European nations to see that the United States was not to be trifled with, and that we could protect and expand, despite foreign interference. As more land was settled and farmed in the Southwest, and the demand for cotton rose, American legitimately began to rise also, especially in the eyes of our former mother nation, England. Cotton rose to be America’s number one export by the 1820s, most of the two billion pounds moving to English textile mills, and the resulting cloth all over Europe. America found its means of legitimacy; unfortunately, it came at a high price – that of two million enslaved Africans.