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What was the main source of labor for the Southern economy up to the 1860s?
The South relied on slavery heavily for economic prosperity and used wealth as a way to justify enslavement practices.
What did the South export in the 1800s?
Cotton was the primary export, accounting for seventy-five percent of Southern trade in 1860. In the course of the war, 446,000 bales of cotton were exported to England and Europe. Ironically, the largest amount of cotton exports went to the United States.
In which regions were most of the wealthiest states found in 1860?
In which regions were most of the wealthiest states found in 1860? The North Central Region and the North East. Describe the shift in the location of the wealthiest states by 1870. The wealthier states have grown more in the North Central Region and the Mid West.
Was the north or south richer?
Rather, though inequality of wealth was somewhat more prevalent in the South than in the North, the Southern states were far wealthier on a per capita basis—on an order of two to one. The wealth of the average Northerner in 1860 was $546.24; of the average free Southerner, $1,042.74.
What was the impact of the cotton boom on the economy?
Booming cotton prices stimulated new western cultivation and actually checked modest initiatives in economic diversification of the previous decade. The U.S. cotton crop nearly doubled, from 2.1 million bales in 1850 to 3.8 million bales ten years later.
When did cotton become the dominant cash crop in the south?
After the invention of the cotton gin (1793), cotton surpassed tobacco as the dominant cash crop in the agricultural economy of the South, soon comprising more than half the total U.S. exports. The concept of “King Cotton” was first suggested in David Christy’s book Cotton Is King (1855).
How many slaves did it take to make cotton?
By 1850, 1.8 million of the 3.2 million slaves in the country’s fifteen slave states produced cotton and by 1860, slave labor produced over two billion pounds of cotton annually. American cotton made up two-thirds of the global supply, and production continued to increase.
How much cotton was grown in the US in 1790?
Almost no cotton was grown in the United States in 1790 when the first U.S. Census was conducted. Following the War of 1812, cotton became the key cash crop of the southern economy and the most important American commodity.