This essential difference in the system of local
government in the North, from that of the South, has remained unchanged
to this day, and has exercised great influence upon the political habits
of the peoples of these two sections.
At the time of the adoption of the constitution, these differences
between the northern and southern colonies were not so great as they
were soon to become. As contrasted with the North, the agricultural
character of the South was already marked, but the designation of these
two sections as "free" and "slave" states had not yet come into use. It
was the remarkable development of the cultivation of cotton consequent
upon the invention of Whitney's cotton gin in 1793, that gave the
tremendous impetus to the increase of slavery in the South. While prior
to the introduction of this machine, scarcely a single pound of cotton
could be separated from the seed by a man in a day, Whitney's gin made
it possible to prepare for market three hundred and fifty pounds per
day. The nature of the cotton plant rendered it peculiarly fitted to the
climate and soil of the South, and the ease with which it could be
cultivated and prepared for market, made the application of slave labor
extremely profitable. In 1789 many of the southern states exhibited
evidences of a desire and intention to ultimately abolish slavery, but
from this time we hear nothing more of this.
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