Antebellum South Carolina - The Cotton Gin's Effect On South Carolina

The Cotton Gin's Effect On South Carolina

In 1786, leaders of the state agreed to ease tensions between Upcountry and Lowcountry citizens by moving the capital from Charleston to a location more convenient to both regions. With the capital in Charleston, Upcountry citizens had to travel two days simply to reach government offices and courts. The town of Columbia, the first city in America to take that name, was planned and erected. In 1790, the state's politicians moved in, although some state offices remained in Charleston until 1865. The Lowcountry and Upcountry even had separate treasury offices with separate treasurers. In 1800, the Santee Canal was completed, connecting the Santee and Cooper Rivers. This made it possible to transport goods directly from the new capital to Charleston. In 1801, the state chartered South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) in Columbia.

Settled first because of its coastal access, the Lowcountry had the greater population. It had achieved early economic dominance because of wealth derived from the cultivation of both rice and long-staple cotton, a major crop. This was easier to process by hand than short-staple cotton. In the Upcountry's soil, only short-staple cotton could be cultivated. It was extremely labor-intensive to process by hand.

In 1793, Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin made processing of short-staple cotton economically viable. Upcountry landowners began to increase their cultivation of cotton and import increased numbers of enslaved Africans and free blacks to raise and process the crops. The Upcountry developed its own wealthy planter class and began to work with the Lowcountry to protect the institution of slavery.

The state's overreliance on cotton in its economy paved the way for post-Civil War poverty in three ways: planters ruined large swathes of land by overcultivation, small farmers in the upcountry reduced subsistence farming in favor of cotton, and greater profits in other states led to continued outmigration of many talented people, both white and black. From 1820-1860 nearly 200,000 whites left the state, mostly for Deep South states and their frontier opportunities. Many of them took enslaved African Americans with them; other slaves were sold to traders for the Deep South plantations. In addition, because planters used up new lands in state or moved rather than invest in fertilizer or manufacturing, South Carolina did not begin much industrialization until much later.