COTTON 
313 
There were objections to the class of people it 
would attract; to the unwholesome influence of 
cotton factory life. It was argued that the South 
could better and more profitably develop the side 
of production, and leave the manufacturing to other 
places and to other people. It would mean more 
wholesome living, freer, purer life combined with 
individual independence and National safety. No 
doubt there was some ground for these arguments. 
The laborer was needed in the fields and could be 
ill-spared for the factory and its incidental duties. 
Production was to be developed; it was the basis 
on which the factory must be built; why cripple it, 
to engage in another industry, neither so desirable 
nor so profitable ? 
As a consequence of this unfavorable sentiment, 
comparatively few mills were erected, although 
some of those in the South were of considerable 
size and importance. In South Carolina, for in- 
stance, a factory was erected as early as 1846 which 
"contained 8400 spindles and 300 looms"— not 
a large one for our day, but one of no little note at 
the time it was built. And in North Carolina in 
1844 "it was estimated that 25 mills represented 
a capital of $1,050,000, operated 50,000 spindles, 
employed from 1200 to 1500 hands, and consumed 
15,000 bales of cotton." But for the development 
of slavery, Southern cotton manufacturing would 
doubtless have overcome all objections of its growth 
and have reached its present important position 
a great many years ago. 
RISE OF SOUTHERN COTTON FACTORIES 
As it is, War and Reconstruction demoralized 
everything, and the great development in Southern 
