1. Chapter 14 Section 3
How did the cotton gin improve cotton production in the South?
• Textile mills in the North and in Britain needed more and more raw cotton to make cloth.
• Southern planters could grow plenty of cotton, but removing the seeds by hand was a slow process.
• Eli Whitney built a machine to clean cotton—the cotton engine, or gin. It had rollers with wire teeth that
separated the seeds from the fibers. One worker using a gin could do the work of 50 people cleaning
cotton by hand.
• The cotton gin led to a boom in cotton production.
• Cotton plants wore out the soil, so planters began to look for fresh land. By the 1850s, cotton plantations
extended in a wide band from the East Coast westward to Texas. This area became known as the Cotton
Kingdom.
• As the Cotton Kingdom spread, so did slavery.
How did the South become an agricultural economy?
In what ways was the South dependent on the North?
Southern industry remained small.
• agricultural tools—cotton gins, planters, and plows
• other agricultural goods—ironware, hoes, and hemp for bags
• cheap cotton cloth
• Tredegar Iron Works of Richmond, Virginia—railroad equipment, machinery, tools,
cannons
• flour mills
However, the South had little industry compared with the North. The South depended on the
North and on Europe.
• loans from northern banks
• northern furniture, tools, and machines