In 1962, Greenville, South Carolina claimed the title “Textile Center of the World”, after they opened their newly built Greenville-Spartanburg International airport. Now were they actually the textile center of the world, this depends on who you ask and how it is measured. Regardless of how it was determined, by the mid-20th century southern states produced more textiles than anywhere else in the world.
Despite Greenville’s claims, the south did not always dominate the national textile market. In 1789 Samuel Slater a British skilled textile worker arrived in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and built the first textile mill in the United States. He founded his mill alongside Pawtucket’s Blackstone River that provided waterpower for his new industry. But once his mill began operations, it would not take long before other New England entrepreneurs realized the financial windfall from investment in textile mills; mills immediately began springing up all over northeastern states, making New England mills the dominate American textile producers.
While New England mills led the nation in textile production, they had to depend on southern states to supply the raw cotton for their industry. New England textile factories made money hand-over-fist reaping large profits, while southern cotton farmers saw little profits from the industry. It would not take long for southern businessmen to view their position as nothing more than a “colonial economy” for northern industries. Once cotton was turned into textile it was worth three times the price that was paid for the raw product. Then it was resold back to the south. Many southern businessmen began questioning, “why not build our own mills and keep the money for ourselves?”
There were a handful of southern textile mills I the early 19th-century, but these were normally retrofitted factories, operating with out-of-date machinery that had been discarded by northern mills when they updated their machinery. Due to the lack of modern machinery, southern mills normally produced low-grade basic textiles such as yarn and wool for sale to local markets.
By 1845, southern business leaders believed that if the southern states were to ever stand equally as their northern neighbors and break away from the position of a “colonial economy”, they needed to develop their own competitive industries, and some saw textiles as the path forward. One of these businessmen was William Gregg, who in 1845 published a series of essays arguing for a south built upon textiles mills. Gregg stated that the south had many advantages over the north as textile producers. First, southern textile mills incurred reduced freight costs associated with transportation; as well as increased sources for waterpower; lower or no taxation on industry; and lastly and the most important factor, cheap and abundant labor.[2] While the south had these advantages, initially it lagged in its development of its textile industry.
Although southern industrialist invested heavily into development of their textile industries, just to say that they eventually dominated U.S. production of the textile market is not enough. Statistical data presented here will demonstrate this growth and development of southern textile industries. This statistical data originates from 19th-century trade publications and U.S. Censuses. These publications provided invaluable numerical information that revealed postbellum production capabilities of the New England mills compared to Southern mills starting from 1860 running until 1900. There are numerous other statistical sources produced during the postbellum period, but the specific trade publications and U.S. Censuses records used for this research appear to be the most reliable sources. Also, in an attempt to present a consistent comparison of size, production capacity and growth of textile mills, the number of “spindles” in operation are used and a measurement. While this seems as an unusual method of industrial measurement, spindle count is commonly used as a determinant in tracking mill size, production capacity and growth. Table 1 below serves as an established base number of New England and Southern mills production capability starting at 860 at the beginning of the postbellum period.
TABLE 1
Table 1 illustrates that in 1860 southern textile mills controlled 5.8% of U.S. textile production, while New England mills controlled 73.9%. But a southern textile revolution began in the early 1870’s that led to the construction of hundreds textile mills throughout the south by 1900. H.P. Hammett pioneered this movement in South Carolina with the construction of the first and largest modern textile mill in South Carolina, Piedmont Manufacturing Company.
As stated before, after Hammett’s mill, more modern textile mills started popping up throughout the south in the 1880’s. While it began slow, southern textile mills became a force to reckon with for northern mills. As Table 2 indicates, by 1880 southern mills decreased their control to 5% of U.S. textile production. New England mills in 1880 saw their 1860’s control of U.S. textile production increase to 80.9%. But by 1890, southern textile production increased to 11% of the total U.S. textile market, while New England saw its first decrease of 5% loss of its U.S. market share coming in at 75.8% control U.S. textile production.
TABLE 2
In 1900, according to Table 3, southern textile industries again doubled their control of the textile market when they produced over 22% of the total textiles in the United States. On the other hand, by 1900, New England textile production suffered another decrease of national production when their numbers reduced from 75.8% of textiles produced in the U.S. in 1890, to 67.6% by 1900.
TABLE 3
NOTE: Table 3 Depicts “Mule” and “Frame” which are types of spindles.
In conclusion, while New England textile mills maintained a significant control of the total production of American textiles throughout the 19th century, by 1890 their control of the market was in a decade after decade decline until southern textiles industries surpassed them in production by the 1920’s. Advantages in labor and freight costs, access to waterpower and lower taxes mentioned before, were the primary reasons that led to southern mills eventual domination of the U.S. textile market.
Belcher, Ray. Greenville County, South Carolina: From Cotton Field to Textile Center of the World. Charleston: History Press, 2006.
Copeland, Melvin Thomas. “Cotton Manufacturing Industry of the United States”, Cambridge: Harvard University, 1912. #26 - The cotton manufacturing industry of the United States, by ... - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library
United States Census Bureau. (1890) “Manufacturing Industries in the United States at the
Eleventh Census: 1890- Textiles.” 1890 census on production of manufactured goods.pdf
United States Census Bureau. (1900) “The Textile Industry of the United States.”
Comments