Supporting Question 1: Why did plantation owners in the South use slaves?

Teacher Preparation: Find a local source for cotton bolls or order the Cotton Boll Kit from agclassroomstore.com. Note that the cotton in this kit has a longer fiber than the cotton harvested in the 1800s. Each cotton boll contains 4-5 sections of fiber. When hand ginning cotton, each student can remove the seeds from an entire cotton boll or one section.

1. Ask the students, "Why did plantation owners in the South use slaves?" After listening to the student ideas, use the following points to discuss how cotton was grown and harvested in the 1800s:
   • The cotton plant grows in climates with long, hot, dry summers.
   • Cottonseed is typically planted in April when the soil is warm enough for the seeds to germinate.
   • Cotton fields need to be kept free from weeds, insects, and disease.
   • A healthy plant will flower, turning yellow-white and then red. When the flower dies, it leaves a boll which bursts open exposing the cotton to dry in the sun.
   • Cotton is fully mature and ready for harvesting approximately 160 days after it is planted.
   • After being picked, cotton bolls need to be ginned to remove the seeds from the cotton fibers.
2. Project the Cotton Field Image onto a large screen. Give each student or group of students a cotton boll. Have the students examine the woody stem of the cotton boll. Explain to the students that the sharp plant material makes it very painful to pick cotton bolls by hand.
3. Go through the Mapping History Module The Spread of Cotton and of Slavery 1790-1860. Point out that as more cotton was planted, more labor was needed to harvest the cotton.
4. Revisit the question, "Why did plantation owners in the South use slaves?" (Producing cotton required a lot of labor. Southern plantation owners believed that the path to wealth and opportunity was owning land and having slaves to work the land. Plantations were characterized by social and political inequality and the exploitation of slave labor.²)

Supporting Question 2: How did the invention of the cotton gin affect slavery?

The purpose of this activity is to investigate cotton, the process of hand ginning cotton, and the impacts of the cotton gin. Adjusting this investigation into a role-play or simulation of slave activity is absolutely discouraged. In addition, no student should be required to participate in hand ginning cotton. We recommend consulting your administrator and/or communicating with parents prior to presenting this lesson. You may want to consider ginning as a teacher demonstration if you anticipate tension or uncomfortable feelings. For more information concerning teaching about the history of African enslavement, refer to research conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center Teaching Hard History: American Slavery.

1. Discuss the following points about cotton and slavery:
   • After hand picking cotton in the fields all day, slaves would join the elderly, infirm, and children to gin the cotton by hand.
   • Slaves were required to remove as much lint as possible from each seed. The more fiber removed from the seeds, the more profit could be made from each boll.
   • A slave would typically hand gin about one pound of cotton (about 120 cotton bolls) a day.
2. Using the cotton bolls from the previous activity, ask the students to predict how many seeds are in each boll. After recording their predictions, allow time for any students who would like to hand gin the cotton.
3. After ginning, have the students compare their prediction to the actual number of seeds from their cotton boll. Refer back to the excerpt of the Paul Smith interview from the Engage section of the lesson. Ask the students to consider the work involved in filling a shoe with ginned cotton seeds.
4. Have the students weigh the fibers from one boll and compare it to a pair of jeans. A pair of jeans is almost one hundred percent cotton (minus the zipper and buttons).
5. Ask the students to consider how many cotton bolls are needed to produce a pair of jeans. (approximately 360 bolls)
6. Read the book Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin by Jessica Gunderson.
7. While discussing how Eli Whitney's cotton gin worked, show the Eli Whitney Cotton Gin—How It Works video. Use the Linking History and Technology handout to provide additional information.
8. Give each student a copy of the Cotton Gin Diagram. Instruct them to write a description of how Eli Whitney's cotton gin worked on the back of the diagram. Using the cotton and seeds the students ginned, glue the fiber and seeds to the appropriate spots on the diagram.
9. Ask the students, "How did the invention of the cotton gin affect slavery?" After listening to the student ideas, watch the video How Inventions Change History (for better and for worse).
10. Give each student or small group of students a copy of the Cotton Gin Before and After graphic organizer and cards. Instruct the students to cut out the cards and then decide if each statement is descriptive of the time before the invention of the cotton gin or after. Have the students place the cards in the appropriate section of the graphic organizer and check their work.
11. Revisit the question, "How did the invention of the cotton gin affect slavery?" (The cotton gin made cotton more profitable and farmers in the South began to grow more cotton. Growing more cotton meant an increased demand for slaves.)

Supporting Question 3: What role did cotton play in the Civil War?

1. Ask the students, "What role did cotton play in the Civil War?" After listening to the student ideas, show the US Secession Map. Explain that the Civil War began on April 12, 1861 and was fought between the Union (the Northern states) and the Confederates (the Southern states that seceded from the United States).
2. Ask the students, "What was the central cause of the Civil War?" After listening to the student ideas, organize the class into small groups. Assign each group one of three topics about events leading up to the Civil War—The Tariff of 1828, Westward Expansion, and the Election of 1860. Provide each group with the Civil War Topic Page for their assigned topic.
3. Have the groups read through the information, click on the QR codes for more information, and discuss their topic. Civil War Topic QR Code URLs:
   • The Tariff of 1828: How the Nullification Crisis Happened
   • Westward Expansion: An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas and Causes of the Civil War - Popular Sovereignty and Westward Expansion (Start at minute 1:00 and end at minute 3:26)
   • The Election of 1860: Republican Banner for the 1860 Presidential Election; Story of US Election of 1860 and Secession (Watch until minute 4:00)
4. Bring the whole class back together. Ask the students, "What issue was central to each of the topics?" (Slavery) Revisit the question, "What was the central cause of the Civil War?" (Slavery)
5. Project the Slave Advertisement and Cotton Plantation primary sources onto a large screen and examine each primary source.
6. Use the following talking points to lead a discussion about the main cause of the Civil War—slavery:
   • The North and South had very different opinions about slavery.
   • In 1860, there were almost 4 million slaves in the South.
   • Slavery existed for a time in the North.
   • By the 1800s, there were very few slaves in the North.
   • Many in the North opposed slavery and even helped runaway slaves escape from the South.
   • Agriculture in the South, especially the production of cotton, relied heavily on the use of slaves.
   • Many people in the South felt that they would be financially ruined if the right to own slaves was taken away from them.
   • The Confederate states went to war to preserve the institution of slavery.
   • The Northern states went to war to preserve the United States as a whole unit.
7. Revisit the question, "What role did cotton play in the Civil War?" (The cotton industry was the greatest contributor to the Southern economy. The South depended on slave labor for the production of cotton. The Confederate states went to war to preserve the institution of slavery. Slavery was the central cause of the Civil War.)