Change in political, social and economic development is most easily influenced by significant historical events. In The United State's history, we can find endless events that created the country and its political beliefs and moral values that its citizens practice today, but two of the most influential events regarding the country's past racial segregation and slavery involvement was the invention of the Cotton Gin and the Missouri Compromise. Both events are referred to as turning points or revolutions in political thinking, social standing, and economic stability in relation to their involvement in the increase of slavery and racial segregation.
In 1794, a man named Eli Whitney patented an invention called the Cotton Gin while employed by Catherine Greene, an independent mother and plantation owner. The machine increased cotton production exponentially by speeding up the process of pulling the cotton fibers away from the seeds. This invention was revolutionary in the fact that at the time, the southern economy had no textiles to refine the produce and little means of transportation and the south was actually moving away from the labour intensive production of cotton. However, with the help of the cotton gin; cotton soon became the leading export of the South's cotton-based agricultural economy.Though the cotton gin was a remarkably simple device it caused an explosion in textile production in the south and the textbook provides the data that “in the decade of the 1790s, cotton production increased from 3,000 bales a year to 73,000... all of which made slaves more indispensable than ever” (157).
Without the cotton gin, the agricultural south economy would have collapsed and the practice of slavery would have diminished, but...
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...Missouri compromise and its threat to states rights there was a civil war which caused the death of hundreds of thousands of men, the acceptance of racial segregation in specific parts of the country and slave rebellions.
Known as turning points because of the part they played in political, social, and economic change, these events; one an invention to increase cotton production and the other a solution to a congressional crisis, can also be considered revolutions in the fact that they changed the lives of every African American yesterday, today, and in the future by being an influence in the increase of slavery, racial segregation and the separation of families.
Works Cited
Washington, Margaret. "Modern Voices." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
Schweikart, Larry, and Michael Allen. A Patriots History to The United States. New York: Penguin
Group, 2004. Print.
The Missouri Compromise was a law passed in 1820 to allow Missouri, a slave owning state, and Maine, a free state, to become a part of the United States. This law had prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory, with Missouri as an exception. This law was deemed necessary by the North in order to preserve the unstable balance between the Free and Slave states. Though this does not seem like it would affect history that much, aside from adding to the land of the U.S., this law, or rather the repeal of this law, would only cause the North and South to drift further apart causing a feud that would eventually lead up to the Civil War.
Before the American civil war, the Southerner’s economy had almost entirely been constructed on slave and cash crop agriculture. The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney. The cotton gin was a contraption that transmogrified the fabrication of cotton by significantly making the task of removing seeds from the cotton fiber faster. The invention benefitted the slaves because it saved the slaves
The Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 were two acts that tried to solve the problems between the note and the south. However, the political action that the north took caused the creation of the “personal liberty” laws, which oddly changed north’s perspective towards slavery. The disagreement on the extension of slavery was not only the eyes of the north anymore. Although, the Compromise of 1850, put a more humane side to the solution, the problem towards slavery is yet to be solved..
From the start of the American Civil War, 1860, until the end of the Reconstruction, 1877, the United States of America endured what can be considered a revolution. Prior to the year 1860, there was a lack of union because of central government power flourishing rather than state power. Therefore, there was a split of opposite sides, North and South, fighting for authority. One major issue that came into mind was of slavery. At first, there were enactments that were issued to limit or rather prevent conflict to erupt, such as the numerous compromises, Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. They did not fulfill the needs of the states, South states in particular; therefore, in the year 1860, the Civil War had commenced. There was the issue of inequality of Blacks in suffrage, politics, and the use of public facilities. However, much constitutional and social advancement in the period culminated in the revolution. To a radical extent, constitutional development between 1860 and 1877 amount to a revolution because of events like the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil Rights Act, the amendments that tried to change African Americans lives in American Society and contributed to get the union together. There is the social developments as well that to a lesser extent had amounted to the revolution because of organizations like the Klu Klux Klan, Freedmen’s Bureau lacking, and discrimination against African Americans that caused progression of violence and white supremacy.
During the time period of 1860 and 1877 many major changes occurred. From the beginning of the civil war to the fall of the reconstruction, the United States changed dramatically. Nearly one hundred years after the Declaration of Independence which declared all men equal, many social and constitutional alterations were necessary to protect the rights of all people, no matter their race. These social and constitutional developments that were made during 1860 to 1877 were so drastic it could be called a revolution.
The Missouri Compromise acted as a balancing act among the anti-slave states and the slave states. Since states generally entered the union in pairs, it stat...
A graduate from Yale University had thoughts of becoming a lawyer, but he needed a job urgently. After a tutoring job fell through, he accepted a position on a plantation in Georgia. His employer, Catherine Green, saw much talent in him and encouraged him to find a way to make cotton profitable. He promptly began working on a solution to the problem of separating the seeds from the cotton. On March 14, 1794, Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the cotton gin.1 The cotton gin impacted American industry and slavery changing the course of American history.
From 1860 to 1877, the American people faced several constitutional and social issues. For example, the after-effects of the Civil War, power struggle between the state and federal government, issues with civil liberties and suffrage, the rights of free black men, and resentment of white men, have all become critical issues. These critical issues needed immediate resolutions. Therefore, resolutions were created to solve these problems and those resolutions called for new constitutional and social developments that have amount to a revolution.
Slavery had a big impact on the market, but most of it was centered on the main slave crop, cotton. Primarily, the south regulated the cotton distribution because it was the main source of income in the south and conditions were nearly perfect for growing it. Cheap slave labor made it that much more profitable and it grew quickly as well. Since the development in textile industry in the north and in Britain, cotton became high in demand all over the world. The south at one point, was responsible for producing “eighty percent of the world’s cotton”. Even though the South had a “labor force of eighty-four percent working, it only produced nine percent of the nations manufactured goods”, (Davidson 246). This statistic shows that the South had an complete advantage in manpower since slavery wasn’t prohibited. In the rural South, it was easy for plantation owners to hire slaves to gather cotton be...
Before the mid 1800s, the north and south dealt with a lot of disagreements that involved economic differences. The differences dealt with slavery, representation, states’ rights, and tariffs. There was a conflict with states wanting to balance the freedom of slaves in the states. Another cause was the tariffs which dealt with the taxation of imported goods, the Northern states supported protective tariffs, but the South did not. Consequently, the conflicts began to grow and this increased the differences between the North and South. During the early to mid 1800s sectional differences forced the north and south farther and farther apart. The differences that affected the North and South involved the missouri compromise of 1820, the cotton gin invention, and the Uncle Tom’s novel.
The reason why slavery spread into the cotton kingdom after revolution is because the tobacco income plummeted as white setters from Virginia and Carolinas forcing the original Native Americans inhabitants farther and farther west where they established plantations. The wide spread use of the cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, made these cotton plantations more efficient and profitable. Around 1820, slavery was concentrated in tobacco growing areas of Virginia, Kentucky along coastal region of South Carolina and Northern Georgia and in 1860s it spread deep in the South (Alabama, Texas, Louisiana) following the spread of cotton.
In 1820 Missouri wanted to join the Union as a slave state. As this would ruin the balance between Slave states and Free states in the Senate, Henry Clay proposed the Missouri compromise. This arranged it that while Missouri was admitted as a Slave state, Maine was also admitted as a free state. It also created an imaginary line along the 36o latitude, where slavery was allowed below it but prevented above it. However they limited themselves by only applying the Compromise to lands gained in the Louisiana purchase. This led to conflict after the Mexican war in which America gained new territories in the West. This doomed the Missouri Compromise, which was probably the most promising of the three. Had the Compromise been applied to all American lands then perhaps it could have succeeded. Instead the Missouri Compromise failed and only led to further conflict between north and south in the future.
In the beginning, the Missouri Compromise was actually weakening any difficult situations between the sections. The Compromise of 1820 stopped the crisis between the North and the South., when they had to decide whether the Missouri should be a free state or slave state....
Abolishment of slavery was it important to the slaves that were in the Washington D.C territory they were no longer being able to be passed in D.C.. This gave the North a really big advantage in the way that they would use them as an example saying if they are doing it why is it still allowed in the south. The slaves being freed caused far more problems and casualties in states of the union many affecting the growth and census of the states,The slave growing population, together with those enslaved, organized churches, private schools, benevolent societies and businesses it was also in a direct correlation with the Missouri compromise. One other big subject the the Compromise of 1850 and the Emancipation Proclamation had in common with the Missouri Compromise was it created a little more separation in the land versus the
Many social groups of America at this time were impacted by the market revolution. Two groups that I am going to focus on are the blacks and the middle class. The slaves were impacted by the invention of Eli Whitney's cotton gin in 1793. In Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner, he tells of the slowing of the cotton market in the "Cotton Kingdom" due to the slow, tedious work of removing the seeds from the plant. And when the cotton gin came in to play, it expedited the process of cotton picking. This tool did indeed revolutionize slavery in the South. Thanks to the cotton gin, a rise in demand for cotton led to more slaves being needed. Foner tells us, "In 1793, when Whitney designed his invention, the United States produced 5 million pounds of cotton. By 1820, the crop had grown to nearly 170 million pounds" (Foner 260). In a painting by Lewis Miller named Slave Trader, Sold in Tennessee depicts the image of slaves being sold in 2 lines, with men on horseback holding a rifle guiding the slaves on their journey. The caption for the image explains that the slaves are being marched from Virginia to Tennessee. The bl...