Cotton in a Global Economy

Students Will

• Analyze historical and academic terminology in the article. 
• Synthesize information from the article in order to answer group questions.
• Have a basic understanding of how cotton impacted the American economy and the people involved in its production and sale.

Materials

• Computer with access to article  
• Printed article  
• Paper and pencils/pens  
• Printed questions

Prior Reading

• Mushulatubbee and Choctaw Removal: Chiefs Confront a Changing World
• The Geography of Mississippi  
• Mississippi's Territorial Years  

Curricular Connections

Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for the Social Studies

Seventh Grade Compacted

• 7C.5 Describe the characteristics and causes of human population changes and migration. 2. Explain how physical and human factors impact the migration and population characteristics of a place. 3. Trace major migration patterns in the U.S. and the world and the push/pull factors that drive them.
• 7C.13 Examine the social and economic conflicts between the North and South that would eventually led to the American Civil War. 1. Synthesize prior knowledge of the geography of the Northern states and the Industrial Revolution to explain why slavery did not grow in the North. 2. Trace the origins and development of slavery and its impact on the nation’s political, social, religious, economic, and cultural development. 3. Analyze the impact of the cotton gin on all social classes and the importance of agriculture in antebellum Mississippi.

Eighth Grade

• 8.6 Interpret the causes, challenges, and effects of the Industrial Revolution. 4. Compare and contrast the cultural, religious and social impact in American life that resulted from the Industrial Revolution.
• 8.9 Identify and evaluate the key events and people involved in the American Civil War. 1. Analyze the reasons that the North and the South waged war against one another, including: slavery, states’ rights.

Mississippi Studies

• MS.4 Explain the development of the Mississippi Territory and its evolution to statehood. 2. Examine the conflicts, treaties, and subsequent removal of indigenous Mississippians.
• MS.5 Analyze the characteristics of antebellum Mississippi, with an emphasis on the plantation system and the evolution of slavery. 1. Trace the evolution of slavery in Mississippi. 2. Discuss the conditions that drove the plantation economy in antebellum Mississippi. 3. Contrast the culture and social structure that developed in Mississippi during the antebellum period.

Problems in American Democracy

• PAD.2 Describe the patterns of conflict and cooperation between the emerging United States and Native Americans from colonial times through the antebellum period. 3. Identify and describe major events and turning points in the relationship between the United States and Native Americans in the early nineteenth century.
• PAD.5 Examine the political, economic, and cultural conditions that led to the U.S. Civil War. 1. Describe the economic characteristics of the North and South in the early-to-mid-nineteenth century that contributed to sectional political conflict. 2. Trace measures taken during the early 1800s to maintain the balance of power between free and slave states including policies related to the admittance of states into the Union and the management of the western territories.

African American Studies

• AAS.1 Examine the influence of geography on the economic, political, and social development of slavery in the United States. 2. Assess the role of geography on the growth and development of slavery.
• AAS.2 Analyze the justifications and ramifications of slavery between 1619 and 1860. 1. Analyze the economic, social, religious, and legal justifications for the establishment and continuation of slavery.

National Standards for Social Studies (2013)

• D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.
• D2.His.3.6-8. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to analyze why they, and the developments they shaped, are seen as historically significant.
• D2.His.3.9-12. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to assess how the significance of their actions changes over time and is shaped by the historical context.
• D2.His.14.6-8. Explain multiple causes and effects of events and developments in the past.
• D2.His.14.9-12. Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past.
• D2.His.15.6-8. Evaluate the relative influence of various causes of events and developments in the past.
• D2.His.15.9-12. Distinguish between long-term causes and triggering events
  in developing a historical argument.

Teaching Levels

Grades 7-12

Before the Lesson

• Students will read Cotton in a Global Economy: Mississippi (1800-1860).
• Use prior reading if possible. 

Lesson

• Teacher should cover included vocabulary prior to the reading portion of the lesson. Students should be given the opportunity to highlight and look up terms throughout the article as needed.

• Have each student read the article individually, either on the day before as homework or in class.

• Students should be placed in groups of 3 to 5. Give each group a question set; this will vary with the number of groups. The teacher also can vary the difficulty based on types of groups.

• Students will answer their questions and discuss as a group.

• Each group should share with the class as part of a class discussion, allowing time for the other groups to ask each other any additional or clarifying questions.

• Teacher will wrap up lesson by making sure students understand the importance of Mississippi's cotton economy.

Vocabulary

Social Studies specific terms

• emancipation: to free from restraint, control, or the power of another, especially to free from bondage
• disfranchise:  to deprive of a legal right, or of some privilege more specifically to deprive of the right to vote
• speculators: people who sought to purchase land cheaply and then resell it for a large profit
• cessions: the assignment of property to another entity, for example Native people to the United States

Academic terms:

• epicenter: the central point of something, typically a difficult or unpleasant situation
• insatiable: impossible to satisfy, quenchless
• proximate: immediate, closest in relationship
• underpinnings: something that serves as a foundation, a basis or support 

 Group Questions

The teacher can number or arrange these as needed.

• What do you think it means to "exist in a vacuum"? How do you think that existence affected the cotton industry?
• Why was the cotton industry so dependent on labor of the enslaved? Do you think the Northern states and Europe had anything to do with that dependence? Why or why not?
• Why did delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention believe the practice of enslavement would disappear?
• What two events discussed in the article changed the course of America's racial and economic future? Do you think one of these events affected the country's future more than the other? Why?
• What were the causes of the large uptick in cotton production? What does the author say controlled the destiny of the enslaved? 
• "The cotton market supported America's ability to borrow money from abroad. It also fostered an enormous domestic trade in agricultural products from the west and manufactured products from the east. In short, cotton helped tie the country together." 

         After reading the above sentences, how do you think the effects of the cotton market could have also torn the country apart?

• What factor directly contributed to the rise in Mississippi's population? How would this effect those in power in Mississippi? (This question will require inferences from information of the social classes of the South.)
• What was the pattern (path) of enslaved people during what the author calls the "Mississippi gold rush"? Why were they forced to migrate?
• What do you think happened to Native people who occupied the land that would eventually become Mississippi? (This question will require inferences about the removal of Native people from the Southeastern United States.)
• How was New York City essential to the cotton industry? Do you think New York City would have become the financial center of America without the practice of slavery? Why or why not?
• What do you think the author means by saying the cotton had become "sanitized"? Do you think northerners would have held the same views if they had a more hands-on look at the process of the cotton economy? Why do you think that?
• Why is it important to know that racial and slavery issues were happening in places like New York City as well as Mississippi?

Answers

• Existing in a vacuum means to be isolated from other places and people. Answers to this question will differ but should show thought and discussion within the group.
• The cotton industry was dependent on labor of the enslaved because the processing of cotton was labor intensive and required large numbers of people. Answers to this question will differ but should show thought and discussion within the group.
• When the constitution was created, cotton was not a large cash crop in America. This fact led the delegates to believe the practice of enslaving people would fade out.
• Several inventions led to a boom in the textile industry and by default the cotton industry. Answers to the last two questions will differ but should show thought and discussion within the group.
• The invention of the cotton gin along with huge demand from British textile mills changed the course of America's racial and economic future. The cotton boom controlled the destiny of enslaved African Americans. 
• Answers to this question will differ but should show thought and discussion within the group.
• The growth of Mississippi's population before its admission to statehood and afterward is directly correlated to the rise of cotton production. Students may list statistics of the White and Black populations in the state both before and after the invention of the cotton gin. The influx of enslaved workers created a class system specific to the South, where the largest number of the populace was disenfranchised and powerless, ruled by a small incredibly wealthy upper class. (As noted above, students may have a hard time inferring this information if the social class system of the South has not been discussed.)
• The path enslaved people were forced to take was from the older Atlantic Coast slave states and the Northern states to that of Mississippi, Alabama, western Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, with the majority going to plantations in Mississippi. The enslaved were forced to migrate because the land in these states was inexpensive and suitable for cotton production. These two factors attracted thousands of White men to the newly available areas.
• The Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, as well as other Native groups had their land taken because of several cessions. They had to move to other locations provided by the United States government. (This question will require inferences about the removal of Native people from the southeastern United States.)
• New York was essential to the cotton industry because cotton planters received insurance, goods, as well as shipping and finance services from New York merchants. Student answers will vary for this answer but should show an understanding of the questions. Students should also show obvious discussion for the why or why not portion of this question.
• In this use, the word sanitized means that most Northerners felt they had little to no blame in the enslavement process because they were only purchasing cotton, or cotton-made products, not owning or selling the enslaved. Student answers will vary for this answer but should show an understanding of the questions. Students should also show obvious discussion for the why or why not portion of this question. (Students will have to infer this information from context, the author doesn't directly answer this question.)
• This answer will vary between students but should show an understanding of the question and topic, as well as a group discussion dynamic.