Industries That Shaped Texas Politics
Overview
Industries That Shaped Texas Politics
Learning Objective
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
Summarize the various industries that helped shape Texas politics
Introduction
Industries that shaped Texas politics include oil, cotton, cattle, lumber, and high technology.
Those industries have ebbed and flowed over time, which has been described as creative destruction. Today, Texas has a very diverse
economy, with industries such as petroleum and natural gas, farming, steel, banking, health care, telecommunications, and tourism.
King Cotton
, From the end of the Civil War through the turn of the century, cotton production increased dramatically as a result of several key developments.
These included massive immigration from the deep South and Europe, removal of natives from prime cotton-growing areas, the invention of a
new plow that more easily broke the thick black sod of the plains, the invention of barbed wire, the extension of railroads, the invention of
cotton ginning, and perfection of cotton compressing at the side of railroads for easier shipping.
Almost no cotton was grown in the United States in 1787, the year the federal constitution was written. However, following the War of 1812, a
huge increase in production resulted in the so-called cotton boom, and by midcentury, cotton became the key cash crop (a crop grown to sell
rather than for the farmer’s sole use) of the southern economy and the most important American commodity.
The rapid expansion of the cotton industry in the Deep South after the invention of the cotton gin greatly increased demand for slave labor to
pick cotton when it all ripened at once, and the Southern states continued as slave societies.
Figure 1.12 African slaves using the first cotton-gin, 1790-1800, drawn by William L. Sheppard. Image Credit: Illustration in Harper's Weekly,
1869 Dec. 18, p. 813; Public Domain
By 1850, of the 3.2 million slaves in the country’s fifteen slave states, 1.8 million were producing cotton; by 1860, slave labor was producing
over two billion pounds of cotton per year. Indeed, American cotton soon made up two-thirds of the global supply, and production continued to
soar. By the time of the Civil War, South Carolina politician James Hammond confidently proclaimed that the North could never threaten the
South because “cotton is king.”
Overview
Industries That Shaped Texas Politics
Learning Objective
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
Summarize the various industries that helped shape Texas politics
Introduction
Industries that shaped Texas politics include oil, cotton, cattle, lumber, and high technology.
Those industries have ebbed and flowed over time, which has been described as creative destruction. Today, Texas has a very diverse
economy, with industries such as petroleum and natural gas, farming, steel, banking, health care, telecommunications, and tourism.
King Cotton
, From the end of the Civil War through the turn of the century, cotton production increased dramatically as a result of several key developments.
These included massive immigration from the deep South and Europe, removal of natives from prime cotton-growing areas, the invention of a
new plow that more easily broke the thick black sod of the plains, the invention of barbed wire, the extension of railroads, the invention of
cotton ginning, and perfection of cotton compressing at the side of railroads for easier shipping.
Almost no cotton was grown in the United States in 1787, the year the federal constitution was written. However, following the War of 1812, a
huge increase in production resulted in the so-called cotton boom, and by midcentury, cotton became the key cash crop (a crop grown to sell
rather than for the farmer’s sole use) of the southern economy and the most important American commodity.
The rapid expansion of the cotton industry in the Deep South after the invention of the cotton gin greatly increased demand for slave labor to
pick cotton when it all ripened at once, and the Southern states continued as slave societies.
Figure 1.12 African slaves using the first cotton-gin, 1790-1800, drawn by William L. Sheppard. Image Credit: Illustration in Harper's Weekly,
1869 Dec. 18, p. 813; Public Domain
By 1850, of the 3.2 million slaves in the country’s fifteen slave states, 1.8 million were producing cotton; by 1860, slave labor was producing
over two billion pounds of cotton per year. Indeed, American cotton soon made up two-thirds of the global supply, and production continued to
soar. By the time of the Civil War, South Carolina politician James Hammond confidently proclaimed that the North could never threaten the
South because “cotton is king.”
