The Major Differences Between the North and South Essay

Economic and social differences between the north and the south was one of the events of slavery leading up to the Civil War. When the cotton gin was invented in 1793, cotton became a very profitable crop. Before the invention of the cotton gin, it would take one slave a day to remove the seeds from two pounds of cotton. After the invention of the cotton gin, it could be used to clean two pounds of cotton in just half an hour. With the invention of the cotton gin came an increase in the number of plantations willing and wanting to move from other crops to cotton. The south raised rice, sugar, and indigo, but cotton was its main crop. This move from other crops to cotton would cause for a greater need for a larger amount of laborers, meaning a greater need for slaves. The south, becoming a one crop economy, then became more dependent on cotton, thus more dependent on slaves. The north, on the other hand, was less focused on crops and

At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free. In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between proslavery and antislavery factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. They reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened to upset the delicate balance between slave states and free states. To keep the peace, Congress came up with a two-part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

During the 18th century differences in life, thought, and interests had developed between the Southern and Northern colonies. The origin of these differences grew from the differences in religion, economics, and social structures between the Southern and Northern Colonies. Slavery, manufacturing, education, and agriculture influenced the everyday way of life for the colonists. This has had everlasting effects on America till this day.

The issue of slavery in the Western Territories was debated since the acquisition of new territory from Mexico after the Mexican-American War. The Wilmot Proviso was introduced to prevent slavery from expanding into any territory gained from the Mexican Cession. The Wilmot Proviso never passed and compromise between slave states and free states was not reached until the compromise of 1850, which was negated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The Fugitive Slave Act,

In 1794, U.S. inventor Eli Whitney patented a machine that transformed the production of cotton by significantly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber called the cotton gin. By the middle of the 19th century cotton had become America’s leading export. This gave Sothern’s the rationalization to maintain and expand slavery despite large number of abolitionists in America. While the cotton gin made cotton processing easier, it facilitated planters in earning greater profits, resulting in larger cotton crops. This in turn increased slavery because it was the cheapest form of labor. As for the North, particularly New England, the cotton gin and cotton’s increase meant a steady supply of raw materials for its textile mills.

It was an agricultural haven for cotton, but also an area of innovation and adaptation. The businesspersons that resided in the South consisted of Northern and Southern businessmen looking to make a name for themselves. Furthermore, in this pursuit for wealth and power they created innovations that forever changed America. The invention of the Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney created a chain of industrial, social, and economical events that made America the nation it is today. These men sought to make a better America, consequently some innovations led to the abuse of human life and liberty, but out of this pain, a stronger nation was born. The fire that was set by these visionaries, even if it was lit by greed, created a nation hungry for the pursuit of a better life and better

The crops grown on plantations and the slavery system changed significantly between 1800-1860. In the early 1800s, plantation owners grew a variety of crops – cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, hemp, and wheat. Cotton had the potential to be profitable, but there was wasn’t much area where cotton could be grown. However, the invention of the cotton gin changed this - the cotton gin was a machine that made it much easier to separate the seeds from cotton. Plantation owners could now grow lots of cotton; this would make them a lot of money. As a result, slavery became more important because the demand for cotton was high worldwide. By 1860, cotton was the main export of the south. The invention of the cotton gin and high demand for cotton changed

In 1793 the cotton industry bloomed because of Eli Whitney when he invented the cotton gin. With the invention of the cotton gin, cotton became a tremendously profitable industry, creating many fortunes for white plantation owners in the antebellum South. “American inventor Eli Whitney and his cotton gin improved the cleaning of raw cotton, facilitating the continuing growth of the industry in many locales.” This proves that the cotton industry rose after the gin was invented. It is evident that Eli Whitney played a major part of the growth of the cotton industry. Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin revolutionized the cotton industry.

Due to this, the economy of America at this period of time was centred around cotton and as Clement Eaton stated, 'After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the tempo of life in the South quickened.' The industry was able to achieve large profits through the use of slaves-the cheapest labour of all-and eventually 'Three-fourths of the world's supply of cotton came from the southern states.'

At first, the Compromise seemed to settle the issue; however, the alarming issue arose again when Mexico ceded new territory to the Union. Differences between the views of the North and South led to a deeper divide that eventually led to the Civil War. The Missouri controversy, an extremely heated crisis between the North and South over slavery in the Louisiana territory, reached to new heights almost as great as the time of secession in 1860. This huge debate showed just how slavery divided the nation (Forbes). Many people knew the consequences of banning slavery, so they kept the Missouri Compromise in place.

Factories in the North attracted former subsistence farmers because it was more efficient to buy food rather than to grow it. Systems like the Lowell System employed young women, provided them with room and board, and paid the women for their work in the factory. With the rise of numerous new American inventions, machines became more efficient and the United States had soon developed one of the best industrial economies in the world. Because of the need for effective transportation to distribute goods, new forms of transportation such as elaborate railroad and canal systems emerged. The south, on the other hand, clung to the slave-based plantation system. The economy was based largely on the production of raw materials, mainly cotton. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin allowed the cultivation of short staple cotton to bring Southern planters great success. Because the cotton industry was so lucrative, Southerners had no reason to become industrialized. However, the industrial economy of the North and the agrarian economy of the South led to a colonial relationship between the two, meaning that the South sold raw materials to the North in exchange for manufactured goods. The system put the South in an inferior position to the North, which obviously upset Southerners and led to greater tension between the two regions.

With the economic system, the south had a very hard time producing their main source “cotton and tobacco”. “Cotton became commercially significant in the 1790’s after the invention of a new cotton gin by Eli Whitney. (PG 314)” Let

Although Whitney acknowledged the difficulty, he didn’t want the valuable commodity,cotton, to disappear. With this in mind, Eli Whitney constructed an invention, the Cotton Gin, that took away all the laboriousness and hardship of producing cotton in time. According to an article, Growth and Entrenchment of Slavery, it said, “With the gin (short for engine), raw cotton could be quickly cleaned; Suddenly cotton became a profitable crop, transforming the southern economy and changing the dynamics of slavery.” The creation of the Cotton Gin created a huge innovation for the southern states. The Cotton Gin was able to produce the result the people needed and cotton was able to be yield easier. In order to make the Cotton Gin harvest large amounts of cotton faster and easier, Whitney conceptualized ideas to improve the existing Cotton Gin. By this time, the northern states were more concentrated toward industrial due to the non-fertile soil found there. According to an article, the Growth of the Cotton Industry, it said, “Additionally, the development of large-scale mills and metal machine tools dramatically increased textile production in Northern mill towns in the early 1800s.” This quote shows the effect of the Cotton Gin on the northern states. To sum up my points, the Cotton Gin will continue to thrive due to benefit it brought to the people in northern and southern

The agency of Whitney as an entrepreneur was insignificant in building the legacy the cotton gin maintains to this very day. Moreover, the cotton gin’s undeniable impact defined by capital accumulation, physical infrastructure, and the American Civil War benefited from factors beyond Whitney’s control. These include the Industrial Revolution, the declining tobacco industry, a poor patent system, the mindset of manifest destiny that swept the nation, and conflicting attitudes towards slavery from the South and North. These social and political structures catapulted the cotton gin from a simple invention useful for producing cotton to a creation that developed capitalism significantly in the United States. Eli Whitney and the cotton gin serve as a perfect example of how capitalism is rarely transformed by specific individuals but rather various complex structures working together over

When Eli Whitney’s invented the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became very profitable for the South. This machine reduce the time it took to separate seeds from the cotton. The cotton gin increased in the number of plantations willing to move from other crops to cotton which increased the need for a large amount of cheap labor, in other words, slaves. The southern economy became a one crop economy, depending on cotton and slavery. The South 's Cotton became the cash-cow for the southern economy. "The southern states produced two-thirds of the world 's supply of cotton, the South had little manufacturing capability, about 29 percent of the railroad tracks, and only 13 percent of the nation 's banks. The South did experiment with using slave labor in manufacturing, but for the most part it was well satisfied with its agricultural economy" (Arrington, 2015). On the other hand, the northern economy was based more on industry than agriculture. The northern industries would purchase the Southern cotton and produce it into the finished product. This differences