This inquiry leads students through an economic investigation of the mid to late 1800s. By investigating the compelling question, “How Did Cotton Sow the Seeds of Panic?”, students identify the market forces of demand and supply at play in the boom and bust of the cotton industry. They learn how these forces impacted the treatment of enslaved persons in the United States during the lead up to The Panic of 1837. Students discover connections between technological innovations like the Cotton Gin, domestic slave trade, manufacturing of cotton in the United States and abroad and land speculation spurred on by President Andrew Jackson’s domestic policies. Students learn about the many shocks that lead to recession which can then be classified as a panic. The depth of this inquiry is in the reflection on what role reliance on enslaved people as labor played in the economic growth of the United States. This emphasizes that choices that we make as individuals and institutions can lead to the exploitation of a group or groups of individuals. This lens is vital to understanding that the choices that students make have far reaching opportunity costs.
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