How Tobacco and Cotten Founded the New World

Tobacco

Tobacco and Cotton were two cash crops that were fundamental in the foundation and expansion of United States of America.  Tobacco use started to become popular in the 15^th and 16^th century in Europe and America.  While many Native American tribes originally used it, regularly smoked in “peace pipes,” these two nations quickly adopted and expanded this plant.  Initial American settlers soon found that tobacco had a profitable market in Britain, where tobacco smoking and “snuffing” (where they would grind it into a fine powder and snuff it up there nose) had become fashionable.  By the end of the 17^th, the “tawny weed” was grown regularly on a plantation basis in the American colonies, with an extremely high demand from England.  As tobacco plantations expanded across America, settlers realized they could take advantage of this opportunity, with their vast amount of land, if they increased output – but where would they get enough labor to do so? By purchasing thousands of slaves from the African coast.

Cotton production grew like wildfire in the American colonies. A great number of early settlers grew and cultivated this plant in order to sell to Europe for profit.  Similar to other plantations, growing cotton (and to pick, gin and bale it) was very labor intensive.  Like tobacco plantations, they needed a labor force to carry out this great deal of work.  This is where slaves come in.  For both cotton plantations and slave plantations, large numbers of slaves were acquired and brought in to work in the fields.

In 1793, Eli Whitney heightened the cotton industry with his creation of the Cotton Gin.  Now, by using a horse to turn the gin, a single person could clean about fifty times as much cotton as they could previously.  Unfortunately, it increased to demand for slave labor and tens of thousands of slaves were transported to cotton fields in Georgia and South Carolina.

           After inventions of the Spinning Jenny, the Water Frame, and the Power Loom, the mechanization of new ways to improve cotton spinning led to the Industrial Revolution, thus increasing the demand for raw cotton in the Americas. 

              Both tobacco and cotton played pivotal roles in the foundation of America.  These plants were extremely essential to the economies of both Europe and America, and bringing the two nations together through trade and commerce.  Correspondingly, these two cash crops required massive plantations that required a powerful and bulky workforce.  While tobacco initially fostered the economy for the southern colonies, cotton soon after took over the role as the leading trade item.  Through slavery, as horrible as it was, these crops flourished, enriching the American colonies and expanding the nation’s economy, power, and technology.  Without tobacco and cotton, and the help of slavery (as horrible as it was), America would not have succeeding in becoming one of the most powerful nations in the world, at least not as quickly.
  

Fun Facts!

1. Cigarettes are the single-most traded item on the planet, with approximately 1 trillion being sold from country to country each year. At a global take of more than $400 billion, it’s one of the world’s largest industries.

2. The word ‘cotton’ is derived from ‘qutun’ or ‘kutun’, an Arabic word used to describe any fine textile

3. Cotton and its by-products are used in the production of a huge range of products including bank notes, margarine, rubber and medical supplies 

4. The cotton plant requires about 180 – 200 days from planting to full maturity ready for harvest 

5. Cotton is a unique crop in that it is both a food and a fibre 

6. Cotton dates from at least 7,000 years ago making it one of the world’s oldest known fibres

7. A tobacco plant produces between 20 and 30 leaves, and even more if buds are not removed. They are not all usable. According to the process in the field, mainly if the tobacco plants are topped or not, the grower is going to pick between 10 and 16 leaves.

Facts Sources:

http://cottonaustralia.com.au/cotton-library/fact-sheets/cotton-fact-file-interesting-cotton-facts

http://listverse.com/2009/01/11/30-fascinating-cigarette-smoking-facts/

http://www.neptunecigar.com/co/article-6_fun_facts_about_the_tobacco_plant.aspx

Photo Citations:

http://www.caes.uga.edu/commodities/fieldcrops/tobacco/images/homepage.jpg

http://www.commodityonline.com/images/7343608841405935181.jpg

http://virtualcurationmuseum.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/peace-pipe.jpg

http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/gastudiesimages/Antebellum%20Cotton%20Plantation%203.jpg

http://www.ushistory.org/gov/images/00022528.jpg

http://www.industrialrevolutionresearch.com/images/cottongin.jpg

http://www.cigarettestime.com/gallery/default/original/13498/viceroy-cigarettes-ad.jpg?1302174050

Link to Relevant Website:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/video/the-cotton-economy-and-slavery/