HIST 1F90 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Cotton Gin, Making Money, Nat Turner
22 Dec 2015
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Hist1f90 slavery and the american revolution: during the colonial era no one other than slaves questioned the legitimacy of slavery. Revolutionary era rhetoric of equality and liberty led some to begin to question slavery. By 1790s quakers who were some of the largest slaveowners in pennsylvania passed a resolution requiring all their members to free their slaves. Virginia and maryland were making money selling slaves to new slave states) Slavery as a necessary evil: most of the founding fathers agreed with thomas jefferson who viewed slavery as a necessary evil. In 1793 eli whitney a teacher visiting a plantation in georgia invented the cotton gin which separated the seeds from the cotton fibers. The growing world demand for cotton ensured that most planters in the south immediately turned to growing cotton thus guaranteeing slavery"s future. Also president jefferson"s louisiana purchase all but guaranteed the perpetuation of slavery by adding millions of acres of land suitable for the cultivation of cotton.
