 Most whites operated small subsistence farms, but the eastern part of the state had a growing class of planters, especially after 1800 when cotton became highly profitable due to the invention of the cotton gin, which enabled cultivation of short-staple cotton in the uplands.All cotton cultivation as a commodity crop was dependent on the slave labor of African Americans.Politically the state was highly democratic, as heated elections pitted the Democratic east versus the Whiggish west.