From an economic standpoint slave labor had ceased to be profitable.
"The whole interior of the Southern States was languishing, and its
inhabitants emigrating, for want of some object to engage their
attention and employ their industry." The cultivation of cotton was
not profitable for the reason that there was no machine for separating
the seed from the fibre.
This was the state of affairs in 1793, when Eli Whitney, a New England
mechanic, at this time residing in Savannah, Georgia, invented his
cotton-gin, or a machine to separate seed and fibre. "The invention of
this machine at once set the whole country in active motion."
[Footnote: Greeley's American Conflict, vol. i. p. 65.] The effect of
this invention may to some extent be appreciated when we consider that
whereas in 1793 the Southern States produced only about five or ten
thousand bales, in 1859 they produced over five millions. But with
this increase of the cotton culture the value of slave property was
augmented. Slavery grew and spread. In 1818 to 1821 it first became a
factor in politics during the Missouri compromise. By this compromise
slavery was not to extend north of latitude 36° 30'. From the time of
this compromise till the year 1833 the slavery agitation slumbered.
This was the year that the British set the slaves free in their West
Indian dependencies. This act caused great uneasiness among the
slaveholders of the South.
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