The Plantation South The Cotton Kingdom north urbanized but south agricultural industrial revolution boomed textile demand booming cotton demand The Cotton Gin 1793 Eli Whitney devised simple machine sped up process o? cotton spiked cylinder 2 remove seeds 4om cotton fibers Slave Labor 1790 698,000 enslaved African Americans ? 1860: 4 million slave price increased 10-20 times cotton greatest source o? wealth in US where there waz mo cotton (Alabama, Mississippi), mo slaves where there waz less cotton (Kentucky), less slaves society dominated by plantation owners living in luxury mo then half south farmers had no slaves grew corn & raised hogs and chickens Defending Slavery many feared lose control o?re AA would mean riots & violent uprisings