Which statement best explains a reason for the trend in the number of enslaved people from 1820 to 1860 (Source 1)?

G

Question 1 options:

There was a decline in the number of enslaved people due to new technologies like the mechanical reaper, which allowed crops to be harvested more efficiently.

There was an increase in the number of enslaved people due to the invention of the cotton gin, which made plantation agriculture more profitable.

The Dred Scott decision made it legal to bring slaves into any state as property, which led to a rise in the number of enslaved people in northern states.

The Compromise of 1850 gave states the ability to decide whether to ban or permit slavery, which caused the number of enslaved people to remain the same.

There was an increase in the number of enslaved people due to the invention of the cotton gin, which made plantation agriculture more profitable.

Explanation:

The cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, was the invention that allowed the Southern United States to become the cotton powerhouse that it was in the 1800s. This small machine allowed to mechanically separate the cotton fibers from the seeds that were attached, quickly and repetitively, greatly reducing the separation time that a human could take.

Consequently, cotton plantations became the most profitable activity for the agricultural states and territories in the South, because they could produce in a much shorter time a greater quantity of cotton fibers. Thus, producers began to multiply their production by dozens, requiring greater amounts of labor. In this way, they began to acquire increasing numbers of slaves from Africa.

"the attempts of the proletariat to rise above this abasement"