ABSTRACT
The southern staples produced by slave labour had the effect of enlarging favoured farms into plantations and of forcing poor farmers to migrate or to work inferior lands. In 1790, cotton figured but slightly in the economy of the Union; in 1860, it was the leading cash crop of American agriculture, contributing two thirds to the value of the country's exports. Within the span of seventy years the phenomenal progress of the Cotton Kingdom wrought a transformation so profound as to rank with the effects of the Industrial Revolution. The number of slaves in the present states rose from 136,000 in 1790 to 368,000 in 1820. Because rice and indigo did not employ additional slaves after 1800, it appears that cotton was the main cause of the expansion of slavery. The southern planter produced export staples in order to purchase capital goods and consumer goods that were conducive to a rising standard of living.
