The Industrialization of Cotton dependency on Slave Labor
Over time, the United States South had adapted to the newfound supply and demand for cotton through slave labor. “As the number of enslaved laborers increased, so did the increase in cotton production. In 1850, 1.8 million of the 2.5 million enslaved people (about 75 percent) were involved in cotton production.”1 The slave trade and demand for slave labor had expanded with the growth of the cotton industry to maintain the mass production of cotton. The industrialization of cotton was built upon the backs of Black slaves. “Enslaved laborers were used in almost all production and processing aspects of cotton, including planting, cultivation, harvesting, loading, baling, and storing."1 Southern plantation owners could exploit cheap slave labor to do the majority of the work for cotton production, explaining the association of threatening the economy with the equality of African Americans.
As the cotton industry progressed with industrialization, slavery became increasingly more institutionalized. “The civilized world is dependent upon the Slave States of America for a supply of cotton. The demand for this commodity has, during many years, increased faster than the supply." 2The sector of cotton production had become so dependent upon slave labor that White Southerners would defend their ownership of slaves, for the sake of the economy that is dependent upon cotton. The early United States prioritization of capital and the economy that at threats towards the economy was an attack on all structures of American society. “The relation of American slavery to the industrial interests of our own country; to the demands of commerce; and the present political crisis." 3 The justification for slavery was blatantly masked as a concern for America's interests. Due to the institutionalization of slavery to support the industrialization of cotton, the economy would be uprooted with the abolition of slavery. The fight to preserve slavery to preserve the economy displays the prioritization of capital over African American equality.
The historical disputes over the protection of the cotton industry had grown malicious, in trying to maintain slavery through the dehumanization of African Americans. Over time, white Southerners grew more defensive of their land, economy, and cotton industry. "No! You dare not make war upon cotton; no power on earth dares to make war upon it. Cotton is king."2 The reference to cotton as king establishes supremacy in the cotton industry, which is motivated by capital and implies a threat to all who challenge it. Southern white slave owners thought of themselves and their capital as superior to slaves and African Americans. “Cotton is produced in the cotton States, and by the labour of somebody; much cotton is sold, and somebody must be paid for it; there are rich people; there are good markets; there is hospitality, refinement, virtue, courage, and urbanity in the South."2 Through glorification the cotton industry, not only as a means of production but associating virtues and morality. The praise of the sectors of the South in which Black slaves could not participate supports the argument of the inequality that the cotton industry upholds.
1 Turnipseed, C. Sade. 2023. Field Hollers And Freedom Songs: The Anthology. Vernon Press Series in American History. Wilmington, Delaware: Vernon Press. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=3446721&site=eds-live.
2 "The cotton kingdom: a traveller's observations on cotton and slavery in the American slave states. Based upon three former volumes of journeys and investigations ... By Frederick Law Olmsted." In the digital collection Making of America Books. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/AJA2491.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed November 26, 2024.
3 Elliott, E. N., & Elliott. (1860). Cotton is king, and pro-slavery arguments Elliott, E. N. Augusta, Ga: Pritchard, Abbott & Loomis.