A
large number of early settlers in America grew cotton. To grow cotton
and to pick, gin (remove seeds from the white fluff) and bale it took
a great deal of work. Therefore large numbers of slaves
were purchased to do this work.
The industry was given a boost invention of Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin
in 1793. With the aid of a horse to turn the gin, a man could clean
fifty times as much cotton as before. This increased the demand for
slaves. For example, in 1803 alone, over 20,000 slaves were being
brought into Georgia and South Carolina to work in the cotton fields.
Much of this cotton was exported to Britain where the invention of
the Spinning Jenny, the Water
Frame and the Power Loom had rapidly
increased the demand for raw cotton. By
1850 America was producing 3,000,000 bales of cotton and the industry
had become a vital element of the South's economy.
E. Degas, New Orleans Cotton Exchange
(1)
Moses
Roper, Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper (1838)
Mr. Gooch, the cotton planter, he purchased me at a town called Liberty
Hill, about three miles from his home. As soon as he got home, he
immediately put me on his cotton plantation to work, and
put me under overseers, gave me allowance of meat and bread with the
other slaves, which was not half enough for me to live upon, and very
laborious work. Here my heart was almost broke with grief at leaving
my fellow slaves. Mr. Gooch did not mind my grief, for he flogged
me nearly every day, and very severely. Mr. Gooch bought me for his
son-in-law, Mr. Hammans, about five miles from his residence. This
man had but two slaves besides myself; he treated me very kindly for
a week or two, but in summer, when cotton was ready to hoe, he gave
me task work connected with this department, which I could not get
done, not having worked on cotton farms before. When I failed in my
task, he commenced flogging me, and set me to work without any shirt
in the cotton field, in a very hot sun, in the month of July. In August,
Mr. Condell, his overseer, gave me a task
at pulling fodder.
Having finished my task before night, I left the
field; the rain came on, which soaked the fodder. On discovering this,
he threatened to flog me for not getting in the fodder before the
rain came. This was the first time I attempted to run away, knowing
that I should get a flogging. I was then between thirteen and fourteen
years of age. I ran away to the woods half naked; I was caught by
a slave-holder, who put me in Lancaster jail. When they put slaves
in jail, they advertise for their masters
to own them; but if the master does not claim his slave in six months
from the time of imprisonment, the slave is sold for jail fees.
When the slave runs away, the master
always adopts a more rigorous system of flogging; this was the case
in the present instance. After this, having determined from my youth
to gain my freedom, I made several attempts, was caught and got a
severe flogging of one hundred lashes each time. Mr. Hammans was a
very severe and cruel master, and his wife still worse; she used to
tie me up and flog me while naked.
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