subject: Textiles, the Rise and Fall of An Industry [print this page] Textiles, the Rise and Fall of An Industry
Textiles, the Rise and Fall of An Industry
In this short history I will attempt to trace the genealogy of a branch of our economic system that was once so integral and interwoven with the lives of Americans. This is the business of textiles. In our formative years as a country and in the days when the world regarded the American colonies as a peripheral and even negligible element to international commerce an international revolution was brewing.
Im not referring to the uprising and revolution for independence that was born in 1776, I'm talking about the industrial revolution in its prenatal state, and that is American textiles before Eli Whitney.
The cotton field that sprung up all over the American south attempted to supply a demand that could not be met almost by definition. The process of first collecting that cotton in the scalding fields then extracting the seeds then finally spinning the stuff required a tremendous amount of manpower and occupied a enormous amount of hours. As a result coast for production was high and this translated into higher price for the consumer.
I will digress for a moment. The war of 1860 in spite of what some modern mutations of old confederates mites tell you fought a war for slavery. Not to abolish it like the union and Abraham Lincoln. This perhaps is the single most coloring element in that disfiguring scar of slavery that mars that landscape of American history and its founding on freedom.
At the same time however and on a pragmatic note, American economy was dependant on the cotton business and thus on slavery. This resulted in farther purchasing of slaves in order to meet the demand for cotton.
Enter Eli Whitney. Although his invention of the cotton gin was in the 1790s its full effect took effect gradually. Yet when it did the entre role of cotton and textiles changed. It became in effect mass produced. True this was only by the standards of the 1900 which does not come close the level of mechanization we benefit from today.
In summary: The production of textiles once required a tremendous amount of man power and even thought slavery was employed to facilitate this requirement it nevertheless stimulated the American economy to a point where it was indispensible. After the implementation of Eli Whitney's cotton gin the industrial revolution was born, and despite its effective replacement of the multitude jobs that required an power it nevertheless transferred the economy from one place to another and thus keeping the net economy productive and viable.
But today, with all of the overseas production perhaps the industrial revolution is backfiring and all of our basic American needs like tee shirts, bed linen, in privet life to dress forms, and material in industrial settings are increasingly imported and the great American muscle is withered with lack of use.
