AAS 118 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Sally Hemings, Low Birth Weight, Infant Mortality

• School: University at Buffalo
• Department: African-American Studies
• Course: AAS 118
• Professor: Ogunbowale Mopelolade

Document Summary

Cotton kingdom: the invention of the cotton gin, by eli whitney, in 1793 paved the way for the expansion of cotton kingdoms in the south. Slavery also expanded rapidly and necessary to clear the forests and drain the swamps in the. South to cultivate new lands for cotton crops. Expansion of slavery led to removal of the american indians. 1860 there were 7,000 slaves, accounted for 14 percent of the population. Demo graphy o f sales to slave o wners. Slaveholders in the south were also distributed unevenly, and were actually declining in number. In 1830, 36% of white southerners owned slaves and this percent dropped to 5% in 1860. 50% of slaveholders owned fewer than 5 slaves. More than 50% of slaves belonged to masters with 20 or more slaves, therefore the typical slave in the south was from a large plantation.