Question 1: Tobacco and Cotton were two founder crops of the United States of America. Explain how and why, highlighting any connections / similarities between the crops.
The Seeds of A New World Power
Both tobacco and cotton
played intrinsic roles in the foundation of the United States of
America, empowering the new world colonialists to free themselves from British
rule and build a strong economy.
It all began back in the early 1600s when
English settlers initiated a new colony near the Chesapeake Bay. The new colony
had nearly failed when a savior appeared in the form of a strange crop –
tobacco seeds from Spanish plantations in the West Indies. Almost immediately
Jamestown, Virginia changed from a tragic wasteland to a burgeoning economic
power. This influx of money from the tobacco trade allowed the American colonies to develop a sense of
independence from their British benefactors, who came to be seen as a real
nuisance due to heavy taxes and a monopoly on exports from the colonies. Ultimately,
it can be argued that tobacco led to the independence of the United States of
America and the freedom that modern Americans cherish so much.
While the economic benefits of tobacco
production can hardly be contested, it also led to the development of slavery
in the United States which would go on to change the country forever. African
slaves were first brought to America in 1619 during the advent of the colonies
for the purpose of growing tobacco. The institution of slavery only became more
popular with the introduction of cotton in the late 1700s. In the Southern
states such as Georgia (my home state), Alabama, and Mississippi cotton was king.
It is said that cotton accounted for more than half of American exports in the
1800s. Britain purchased the majority of raw cotton and produced cotton
products in their factories – this powered the southern states to become exorbitantly
wealthy and finally allowed America to be truly economically independent. However,
the wealth that free labor created came to be morally questioned by the northern
United States. The disagreement over slavery was one of the driving forces that
ignited the American Civil War in 1861, which tore the United States in half.
After four years of conflict the Union
(northern states) won the war, the south was left in shambles, and slaves were
declared to be free. At that point, slaves had accounted for almost half of the
population in the South. The years that followed, known as the Reconstruction
era, were wrought with strife as society struggled to accept African-Americans
as equal. It was a not a respectable time in American history and things only
got worse until the Civil Rights Movement started to change America for the better
and the south was slowly rebuilt. Today, the United States still hasn’t
recovered completely from the devastating effects of slavery, which brought
about by its tobacco and cotton production.
The tragic conclusion is that tobacco and
cotton both left scars on America, even as they lifted the country up as the
greatest economic power in the world.
Cotton is still grown in Georgia today - thankfully in a much less morally reprehensible manner. This image depicts my friend and me standing in a cotton field in rural Georgia with our brothers and my dog.
Photo citations:
Photo 3: Personal photo
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Very interesting blog post Isabel! What do you think would have been the fate of America if the Jamestown colony had failed? -Rachel Frei
ReplyDeleteWell Rachel, I believe that at some point another colony would have come along to find success. America's wealth of natural resources had too much potential to be abandoned. That being said, it may have been a slower transition and America would have been initiated by different people. Who knows how much this could have upset history's fragile balance?
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