The document summarizes the rise of the cotton economy in the American South between 1790-1860. It states that cotton became the leading cash crop and vital to the Southern economy due to the invention of the cotton gin, which increased cotton production. The cotton gin led to increased demand for enslaved labor to grow and pick cotton. The Southern economy remained based on agriculture, and it discouraged industrial development due to its reliance on cotton profits and lack of capital investment.

1. Guide to Reading
Main Idea
Cotton was vital to the economy of the South. 
Key Terms
• cotton gin 
• capital
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2. Rise of the Cotton Kingdom
• The economy of the South thrived by 1850
because of cotton. 
• It became the leading cash crop. 
• Tobacco and rice had been profitable in
colonial times, but tobacco depended on
foreign markets and the price fluctuated. 
• Rice could not be grown in the dry inland
areas. 
• In the Deep South–Georgia, South Carolina,
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas–
cotton helped the economy prosper, and
slavery grew stronger.
(pages 397–399)
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3. Rise of the Cotton Kingdom (cont.)
• Eli Whitney’s cotton gin revolutionized cotton
production. 
• The machine removed seeds from cotton fibers.

• A worker could clean only 1 pound of
cotton a day by hand, but with the machine, a
worker could clean 50 pounds. 
• The cotton gin led to the need for more workers.

• Southern planters relied on enslaved laborers to
plant and pick the cotton.
(pages 397–399)
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4. Rise of the Cotton Kingdom (cont.)
• The British textile industry created a huge
demand for cotton and kept the price high. 
• The Deep South was committed to cotton,
with some areas also growing rice and
sugarcane. 
• The Upper South–Maryland, Virginia, and
North Carolina–was also agricultural and
produced tobacco, hemp, wheat, and
vegetables.
(pages 397–399)
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5. Rise of the Cotton Kingdom (cont.)
• The value of enslaved people increased due to
the reliance on them for producing cotton and
sugar. 
• The Upper South became a center for the sale
and transport of enslaved people in the region.
(pages 397–399)
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6. Industry in the South
• The South remained rural and agricultural. 
• The entire South produced fewer
manufactured goods than the state
of Pennsylvania in the 1860s.
(pages 399–400)
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7. Industry in the South (cont.)
• Several barriers to industry developed in the
South: 
- Because cotton was so profitable, farming was
important, not new business. 
- Because capital, or money to invest in business,
was lacking, new industry did
not develop. 
- People saw no reason to sell their land or
enslaved workers to raise money for industry,
and they believed their economy would continue
to prosper.
(pages 399–400)
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8. Industry in the South (cont.)
- Because the market for manufactured goods
in the South was smaller than in the North, this also
discouraged industrial development.
- Some Southerners did not want industry.
(pages 399–400)
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9. Industry in the South (cont.)
• Goods were transported via natural waterways.

• Most towns were along rivers or on the coast.

• Roads were poor and there were few canals. 
• Railroad lines were mostly local and did not
connect parts of a region. 
• By 1860 only about one-third of the rail lines
were in the South.
(pages 399–400)
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