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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: Brumar89 who wrote (449010)1/20/2009 2:22:44 PM
From: HPilot  Read Replies (1) of 1576858
 
I think you're wrong on the gin. It made cotton farming much more important and gave a boost to slavery. I believe prior to its invention, slavery was dying and would have ended peacefully in time.

I have heard that argument before, but it only applies to boosting the cotton market, slaves were used in the rice, indigo, and all other crops as well. The gin lowered the cotton price because of the lower labor, despite the fact the labor was from slaves. That rather flies in the face of that argument. The bull market on slaves in the 1840's and 50's was due in part to the fact that importing slaves was no longer legal, so supply dried up to slaves grown in the US. It was also because there was a growing number of large farms or plantations. But that had more to do with more settlers buying large tracts of land and slowly developing that land than the acceptance of slavery. I would think the tractors, cotton pickers, planters, harvesters, et al would have a larger impact than the gin. Slaves would either be either treated worse to keep costs down, or be give the opportunity to earn money on their own to pay for their freedom. Those who did the former would occasionally be brought to justice for abuse and occurrences of that could change public opinion.
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