WI Agri mech early

[NapoleonXIV]

(moved from books)

Let's say an easily portable source of power for agriculture is developed in 1810. John Deere can hook up his inventions to a tractor and so much more development of agricultural mechanisation takes place much faster. By 1820 almost all forms and aspects of agriculture are thoroughly machine oriented. Gangs of slaves stand idly in the fields, watching the plows and cotton planters in one field and the cotton pickers in another as their overseers wonder what to do with them.

Or Do they? Would mechanized agriculture have ended slavery and prevented the CW, or was there more to it than that.?

[ConfederateFly]

It was probabaly more than slavery because the north and south had many social and economic differences

[Beck Reilly]

Slavery in the South would have continued, albeit in a different form. Most likely, you'd see machines take the work on larger plantations owned by the wealthy (i.e. the ones that could afford the machines). You'd see slavery become an aspect of the poorer populations, allowing small-time farmers and poorer mountainers in the western parts of the Carolinas and the eastern parts of Tennessee (those who did not support the CSA wholeheartedly and, in this ATL, would not be able to afford machines) to be able to afford slaves. Contrary to what you'd expect, slavery would not catch on in the actual factories which makes the machines. Slavery is simply not efficient enough, nor is the quality of its produce good enough, to replace wage labor in factories.

Ironically, with the invention of machines, you may see slavery become MORE ingrained in southern society, causing all the poorer folk to pour their hearts into preserving the Confederacy come the Civil War...

[Constantinople]

Slavery would have gone away!

[Keenir]

Originally Posted by NapoleonXIV

(moved from books)
By 1820 almost all forms and aspects of agriculture are thoroughly machine oriented. Gangs of slaves stand idly in the fields, watching the plows and cotton planters in one field and the cotton pickers in another as their overseers wonder what to do with them.

Or Do they? Would mechanized agriculture have ended slavery and prevented the CW, or was there more to it than that.?

Nice as it would be to believe otherwise, mechanized agriculture wouldn't have ended slavery any more than the rest of the Industrial Revolution brought an end to class differences or abuses of the peasantry.
("what do we need all those poor people for?")

[Max Sinister]

Didn't the Brits IOTL invent a tractor powered by steam?

[arctic warrior]

Originally Posted by Max Sinister

Didn't the Brits IOTL invent a tractor powered by steam?

1801 - Trevithick invented the steam-powered car - carriage.
1832 - Heathcoat invents the caterpiller driven steam-powered tractor. The monster weighs 30 tons!
1858 - John Fowler patents a steam-powered plough.