today we're looking at agriculture in the south
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at the questions down in the description also don't forget to check out dailybellringer.com
for resources that go with many of the bellringer videos as the industrial revolution grew and grew
across the northeastern part of the united states during the antebellum period which by the way
the antebellum period is the time period between the war of 1812 and the civil war in america
but in the south their economy became more and more dependent on agriculture and the forced
labor of enslaved people the geographic position of the united states southeast region meant that
it rarely had temperatures below freezing for at least not for very long and had long hot summers
which offered the ability to grow and harvest crops year round unlike the north where there were
freezing temperatures along with shorter summers and growing crops year-round just simply was not
possible during this time period in the 1800s a majority of americans made their living through
agriculture however the number slowly declined as industrialization took hold across the northeast
in 1800 it is estimated that 83 of americans farmed and by 1860 though the number had dropped
to 53 percent were involved in agriculture there were two types of farming practice subsistence
farming in which a person simply grew enough food for their family to survive and maybe a little to
trade and then commercial farming which grew cash crops to be sold and make profits in the
south just about every profession was tied to agriculture in one way or another from merchants
who bought and traded crops mill workers who processed crops people that repaired tools and
farm equipment dock workers that loaded and unloaded crops just about everyone was tied
to agriculture in some shape or form of course some of the earliest crops to be grown started
near jamestown virginia with tobacco but then branched out into grow the growing of rice
sugar and indigo but as time went on cotton became the dominant crop especially after the invention
of the cotton gin in the late 1700s which made growing cotton an almost guaranteed profit
american grown cotton fueled the industrial revolution in both europe and the northeastern
part of the united states as cotton was the primary raw material needed for the
growing textile industry which was expanding rapidly after the invention of the power loom
the term cotton is king became the motto as by the time of the civil war in 1861 cotton accounted for
two-thirds of the value of all united states exports massive plantations or large farms
many over one thousand acres with hundreds of enslaved people grew throughout the south
clustered near the coast or along waterways so that they could easily get their crops to market
these plantations were virtual towns with their own stores and crafts people and these plantation
owners became extremely extremely wealthy one stretch of land between new orleans louisiana
to baton rouge along the mississippi river had the highest concentration of millionaires in the
entire united states one could argue this area was basically the beverly hills of the 1800s now even
though there were many large plantations across the south a large percentage of agriculture was
done by small farmers who did not own any enslaved people but these small farmers aspired to build
large plantations and accumulate large amounts of wealth of course the unfortunate fact of all this
wealth was that it was being accumulated based on the labor of enslaved people being forced to work
on these massive plantations throughout the antebellum period the number of enslaved people
in america grew to approximately four million that means by the time of the civil war approximately
one in every seven americans was owned by another american furthermore as these massive plantation
owners accumulated wealth they also acquired political power and influence which helped them to
defend the institution of slavery and make sure it was maintained in order to maintain their profits
and just to give you an idea of how committed these slave owners were to the institution in 1860
the value of all southern land was approximately 2.4 billion dollars but at the same time in
1860 slaveholders then invested approximately 3 billion into the ownership of other human beings
and forcing them to do labor so southerners were investing more money into slavery than they were
into their land that they were farming and they were not investing hardly anything into industry
in the south by the time of the civil war ninety percent of the united states manufacturing and
industry was located in the north the south's virtual one-dimensional economy built upon
agriculture and the labor of enslaved people would eventually lead to war and heavily influence the
outcome of the civil war so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you