Cotton and its impact on slavery in the Western world

Cotton and African Americans in the American South

This is a brief and quick analysis of cotton which is based on one of the best-known history books. The book is Empire of Cotton written by Beckard, Sven. The book is an analysis of cotton based on the Black experience and is primarily an economic and social analysis. The book analyzes the economic history of cotton and the social impact on African Americans. I decided to write this to better inform the public about the history of Cotton and give basic analysis of the Western world. It also briefly touches American slavery and gives better perspective to the history of the African American experience.

African Americans were brought in to work on cotton plantations from Africa by white entrepreneurs. In the United States the Black experience was primarily based on slaves that were taken from their homes in Africa to work on cotton plantations. Cotton was a primary and main economic factor of the African American South. African Americans were taken from Black Africa and enslaved to work on the American cotton plantation as slaves.  African American’s were enslaved and brought in to work on cotton plantations because the work was extremely grueling in the hot Southern sun. Many Africans died picking cotton or because of the after effects. White entrepreneurs in the Western part of the Greater Earth tried to create large portions of land and tried to create large cotton plantations that were worked by Black slaves. Cotton plantations were created because the good was “astonishingly profitable” in the 1780’s. Entrepreneurs made tons of money from slaves working Cotton plantations. Additional capital was used to create the Cotton Gin, and to build Cotton mills.

Bibliography

Beckert, Sven. Empire of Cotton: A Global History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.