During the years between 1800 and 1820, Newberry County underwent a dramatic change which would affect the economic and social status of everyone living there. In fact, almost all of the older Southern states experienced the same change. By contrast, consider that Newberry County in 1800 was a district of small farms and frugal, hardworking farmers and artisans. The farms were self sufficient family units, with small grist mills, cobblers, cabinetmakers, distillers, and weavers plying their trades. There were few Negroes in the county, and the slave population was 2,204 or seventeen per cent out of a total population of 12,906.

By 1810, the white population had declined eight per cent to 9,848, and the slave population had increased by 1,802 or 82 per cent. The reason for this growth in the slave population was the money to be made by planting short staple cotton which rapidly became Newberry's chief crop. In the face of growing competition from slave labor, non-slave-holding families migrated to Georgia and Tennessee. In the ten years be-tween 1800 and 1810, the Newberry economy shifted to larger farms and more Negro labor. By 1820, slaves represented thirty-three per cent of Newberry's population. This growth in slave population was directly related to the growing price of cotton which sold for 30.8 cents per pound in 1818, and the profits were too attractive to resist.

Charles Crow continued on in Newberry County as the economy shifted to the large farm production of cotton. The forces that influenced New-berry soon affected the course of Charles' life.