Southern Cotton and Slave Industry

By 1790s, the tobacco industry lost its value in America. Cotton became king in the southern states with huge demand from British textile factories. It was easy to grow, required no machinery, it became very profitable for the southern farmers. When Eli Whitney invented the cotton, it eliminate the tedious labor of manually remove the seed in cotton. No longer limit by the quantity they could clean, huge cotton plantation exploded in the South. The large scale cotton plantation push the grow of the slave industry, even though the government ban slave importation, slave smuggling went on for year. Slave trade became profitable with in the south; auction was hold mostly in Washington, Florida and New Orleans. Man sold into plantation to pick cotton, child paid for by weight. Woman was measure and fondle in public auction, sold into prostitution in New Orleans, or for breeding.

The Plantation slave has rank on their own hierarchy. Plantation master have trusted head-driver slave, usually their childhood friends, they watched over the slave community and keep them in check, reported the overseer performance. The driver slaves had control over a small group worker slave, and responsible for a section of the field; they let the worker to move at easy pace, and pick up the speed when the master or overseer came around. Sometimes the slave was allowed to sing while they work in the cotton field. More typically, the overseer force the slave to works until exhaustion, they break