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greater demand for slaves, rather than lowerering the need for slave labor, because this invention allowed more tasks to be completed in a shorter time frame. Until the late eighteenth century, the main problem with processing cotton had been that the seeds were so hard to separate from the cotton itself. Each piece of fiber had to be cleaned by hand, so it would take a laborer an entire day to clean about one pound of cotton. To meet the needs of the growing textile

SLAVE REBELLIONS

As a result of some of the working and living conditions, slaves would occasionally rebel. They sometimes poisoned their owners, destroyed machinery, or burned down buildings and farms. Some slaves even harmed themselves so they would be worth less money if a master tried to sell them. Some mothers killed their young infants so that they would not be forced to live in slavery. In 1800, Gabriel Prosser planned a rebellion in Richmond with a group of other slaves. Prosser, who may not actually have gone by this name, was a blacksmith who had learned how to read. As summer approached, the slaves sought sympathy for their cause. While no white men died in the rebellion, the state executed Gabriel and 26 other rebels. Generally, large-scale rebellions like Gabriel’s were unsuccessful. Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion was the scariest and most threatening to white slaveowners. Turner’s group of 75 black slaves killed 60 white people in a matter of two days. The rebellion was stopped by a state militia and local resistance. As a result of the fear white slaveowners felt, they painted an even stronger picture of black slaves as barbarians who required strict control.

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Overview of Plantation Slavery