Era of Good Feelings

James Monroe’s presidency was first called the “Era of good feelings” by The Columbian Centinel, which was a Federalist newspaper based in Boston. Some people unfortunately find it very misleading. For the first couple of years, Monroe had no problems to face. After the War of 1812, America had made a lot of progress and was prosperous. Then, everything started to go down hill when the Panic of 1819 hit America. All the progress ended and America went into a depression. The Panic of 1819 featured deflation, bank failures, foreclosures, unemployment, a decrease in agriculture and manufacturing, and overcrowding in debtors’ prison. This was said to be the first economic crisis since Washington. Although the whole country was in distress, Monroe was never blamed. He was even voted in for a second term. The country began to split again by geography (north, south, and west). Because of this, Henry Clay came up with a plan called the “American System”. It consisted of three parts; a strong banking system, a protective tariff, and internal improvements such as canals and roads. Many of the people did not like the high tariff and the roads and canals were vetoed by Monroe. In this time, the north and south split their views on slavery. The north opposed it while the south and west wanted it. America also had problems with the Spanish that had territory in Florida. They signed a treaty with us. Basically even though Monroe was elected almost unanimously, a lot of hard times happened while he was president. The Era of Good Feelings, in my opinion is very misleading and does not tell the story about what actually happened.

Impact of the Cotton Gin

Eli Whitney, who was originally from Massachusetts, invented the cotton gin in the year 1793. It enabled cotton to be processed much faster, therefore making cotton farming much easier and less laborious. It worked by separating the sticky cotton fibers from the seeds. This made the work of one person with the cotton gin, the same amount as one hundred people without it. Eli Whitney’s intentions were to minimize slave labor, unfortunately, it did the complete opposite. Slave labor grew and so did the cotton industry. Tobacco, rice, and sugar became second to cotton. The cotton gin revolutionized the United States agricultural economy.

A direct impact of the cotton gin was how slavery grew; despite of what Whitney wanted it to do. Fewer slaves were needed to process the cotton, but more slaves were hired to grow and pick more cotton. For America, the cotton gin was major progress; for slaves, it was the Americas degenerating. Many states and plantations increased their number of slaves to accommodate the massive desire for cotton by the north and England. The south, obviously, had the most slaves since they exported cotton. One out of three southerners would be a slave. According to historian Douglas Egerton, cotton was the perfect crop for slavery. It was short so the slaves could be overseen and organized easier.

In 1807, Thomas Jefferson passed a law that kept slaves from being imported to any port in the United States. Britain also passed a law against the slave trade. Unfortunately, slaves were brought into America until 1860. Many slave women were encouraged by their masters to have children. The plantation owners would technically own the children too and would be able to make them work. The southerners still used slaves until 1865.