Page 244 - American Stories, A History of the United States

The emerging exchange network encouraged movement away from diversified farm-
ing and toward regional concentration on staple crops. Wheat was the main cash crop 9.1
of the North, and the center of its cultivation moved westward as soil depletion, pests,
and plant diseases lowered yields in older regions. In 1815, the heart of the wheat belt
was New York and Pennsylvania. By 1839, Ohio was the leading producer, and Indiana 9.2
and Illinois were beginning to come into their own. On the rocky hillsides of New Eng-
land, sheep raising was displacing mixed farming. But the prime examples of successful
staple production in this era were in the South. Tobacco remained a major cash crop of 9.3
the Upper South (despite declining fertility and a shift to wheat in some areas); rice was
important in coastal South Carolina; and sugar was a staple of southern Louisiana. Cot-
ton, however, was the “king” crop in the Lower South. It became the nation’s principal
export commodity and brought wealth and prosperity from South Carolina to Louisiana.
Five factors made the Deep South the world’s greatest producer of cotton. First was
the great demand generated by the rise of textile manufacturing in England and, to a
lesser extent, in New England. Second was the cotton gin. Invented by Eli Whitney in
1793, this simple device cut the labor costs involved in cleaning the seeds from short-
staple cotton, thus making it an easily marketable commodity.
A third reason for the rise of cotton was the availability of good land in the
Southeast. As yields fell in the original areas of cultivation—mainly South Carolina
and Georgia—the opening of the rich and fertile plantation areas or “black belts” of
Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana shifted the Cotton Kingdom westward and vastly
increased total production. In 1816, New Orleans, the great marketing center for west-
ern crops, received 37,000 bales of cotton (a bale of cotton weighs 480 pounds); in 1830,
428,000 arrived; in 1840, the annual number had reached 923,000. Between 1817 and
1840, the amount of cotton the South produced tripled from 461,000 to 1,350,000 bales.
A fourth factor—slavery, which provided a flexible system of forced labor—
permitted operations on a scale impossible for the family labor system of the agricul-
tural North. Finally, the cotton economy benefited from the South’s splendid natural
transportation system—its great network of navigable rivers extending deep into the
interior from the cotton ports of Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and, of course, New Quick Check
Orleans. The South had less need than other agricultural regions for artificial internal What was the main agricultural crop
improvements such as canals and good roads. Planters could simply establish them- of the South, and what factors made
selves on or near a river and ship their crops to market via natural waterways. it so successful?

Early Industrialism
The growth of a market economy also created new opportunities for industrialists. In
1815, most manufacturing in the United States was carried on in households, in the
workshops of skilled artisans, or in small mills that used waterpower to turn wheat
into flour or timber into boards. The factory form of production, in which supervised
workers tended or operated machines under one roof, was rare. It was found mainly
in southern New England, where small spinning mills, relying heavily on the labor of
women and children, accomplished one step in the manufacture of cotton textiles. But
women working at home still spun most thread and wove, cut, and sewed most cloth.
As late as 1820, about two-thirds of the clothing Americans wore was made entirely
in households by female family members—wives and daughters. However, they were pro-
ducing a growing proportion of it for market rather than direct home consumption. Under
the “putting-out” system of manufacturing, merchant capitalists provided raw material to
people in their own homes, picked up finished or semifinished products, paid the workers,
and took charge of distribution. Items such as simple shoes and hats were also made under
the putting-out system. Home manufacturing of this type was centered in the Northeast,
often done by farm families making profitable use of their slack seasons. It did not usually
challenge the economic preeminence of agriculture or seriously disrupt rural life.
Artisans in small shops in towns made most articles that required greater skill—
such as high-quality shoes and boots, carriages or wagons, mill wheels, and barrels
or kegs. But after 1815, shops grew bigger; masters tended to become entrepreneurs
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