Cotton Revolution The cotton revolution had an enormous impact on African descent in America. Without the success and boom of cotton produced in the South, the North wouldn't have industrialized as quickly because cotton textiles were among the products that were profited first. Cotton was one of the most imported and traded products with majority of it coming from the South. Because cotton was profitable, the African slaves who were treated as property are also part of that value during that time. Northern manufacturers made extra money from clothing the Southern slaves with the cotton the slaves themselves had cultivated.