Effects of the Cotton Gin

     Eli Whitney's machine was the first to clean short-staple cotton. His cotton engine was made of spiked teeth that were on a revolving cylinder which when turned by a crank, pulled the cotton fiber through small openings to separate the seeds from the lint.                                    L-ter on, the gins became horse-drawn and were powered by water. As a result, the cotton was being produced at a much faster pace. The price of cotton also decreased. Cotton soon became the number one selling good.

The growth of the cotton industry impacted America economically and socially. “The domestic slave trade exploded, providing economic opportunities for whites involved in many aspects of the trade and increasing the possibility of

The cotton gin produced more cotton in an hour than multiple workers in a day. In 1793, Eli produced and sold the cotton gin to farmers for two-fifths of their profit. However, the farmers decided to manufacture their own version of the cotton gin. This resulted in farmers having a huge financial profit, unlike Whitney who was not so lucky. By the mid-1800s, South's cotton production had risen by a catastrophic amount from the 1700s. Before, the cotton gin the United States only produced 750,000, but after the south produced 2.85 million bales. Unlike the south, the north was not able to produce a lot of cotton because of the

American society was hugely impacted by Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin because it changed the way cotton was separated, in turned made cotton production easier and made cotton plantations spread across the South. This increased the need for slavery and caused a bigger wedge between the North and the South. In the South, during the late 1700’s, tobacco became a less lucrative crop, and it also laid waste to the land robbing it of nutrients. Other crops of the period, hardly made any profit for the southern plantation owners.

Due to this, the economy of America at this period of time was centred around cotton and as Clement Eaton stated, 'After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the tempo of life in the South quickened.' The industry was able to achieve large profits through the use of slaves-the cheapest labour of all-and eventually 'Three-fourths of the world's supply of cotton came from the southern states.'

The gins later became horse-drawn and water-powered gins and cotton production increased, along with lowered costs. Cotton soon became the number one selling textile.

In the 1800’s, the cotton gin was invented and created an economic boom for the South, but that eventually tear the nation apart. One cotton gin used by one person can process 50 times the amount of cotton done by hand. The cotton gin made cotton processing easier and led to the use of more slave labor because the plantation owners in the South want to plant more cotton to earn more money. This event eventually causes the nation to separate based on their sectional or regional interests. The nation was divided between the North and the South. Their social and political differences contributed to the division of the nation and started the civil war, a war within a country.

The cotton gin was created by Eli Whitney, who sent a letter to Thomas Jefferson asking for a patent on the product before it was produced. The cotton gin allowed for a faster production on cotton by cutting down the time it takes to clean the cotton. Jefferson replied to Whitney with a huge desire for the gin, showing how other slaves owners would also want one urgently. This cotton gin changed the world for slaves and slave owners. Since it cut down the time for cleaning the cotton, it made cotton production faster, which allowed slave owners to have more slaves picking cotton than cleaning it.

     One of the most important events caused by the cotton gin was the exile of the Cherokee Indians along the Trail of Tears. As the demand for cotton and slaves grew the South began to look for more land, and discovered it in the land owned by the Cherokee Indians. The land was taken from them beginning in 1828 when the Georgia government outlawed the Cherokee government and began to take the land. This continued until 1838 when, despite a Supreme Court order, federal troops drove the last of the Cherokee from the land, that covered Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina to Oklahoma where many of them died. This would not have occurred had it not been for the invention of the cotton gin. The cotton gin created a market for slavery. As the production of cotton rose so did the production of slavery. These enterprises needed land, which stimulated the wars against the Indians to take their land, which could then be used by cotton farmers, and plantation holders who bred slaves. Whitney’s cotton gin, and its ripple effect was having a major impact on the events in the American South.

When Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1794 there was not much of an impact at first, but once the 1800’s came around the cotton gin gained popularity. The cotton gin was used in the south by slaves to separate the cotton fiber from the seeds. It had teeth that pulled the fiber apart and let the seeds fall out. The north and south, both, were impacted by the cotton gin, but depending on who you ask; workers, slaves, slave/ plantation owners, mills owners; people would have different opinions.

The slaves would have had to hand pick the cotton fibers from their seeds, but the cotton gin machine separated the fibers for them. The farmers in the South tried growing cotton, but realized that having the slaves pick cotton took them a whole day to separate the fibers from the seeds so the farmers decided to stick to growing rice and tobacco. The cotton gin helped the slaves harvest fifty pounds of cotton in one day. The cotton gin increased slavery because the companies needed workers to operate the machines so the government banned slavery in the Northwest Territory. Also, there was a constitutional permanent ban on slave

The cause of the growth of the Cotton Kingdom was the early industrial revolution. The new aspect of cotton associated with the early industrial revolution was producing cotton textiles with water-powered spinning and weaving machinery. The demand of cotton was immense, yet the production of cotton was slowed by the task of removing the seeds after picking the plant. Eli Whitney changed the outlook on cotton production in 1793 with his invention of the cotton gin, which used rollers and brushes to quickly separate the seeds from the cotton. The rising demand of cotton and the new lands in the West created opportunities for the planters to monopolize the land that they wanted.

With Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became very profitable. This machine was able to reduce the time it took to separate seeds from the cotton. However, at the same time the increase in the number of plantations willing to move from other crops to cotton meant the greater need for a large amount of cheap labor, i.e. slaves. Thus, the southern economy became a one crop economy, depending on cotton and therefore on slavery. On the other hand, the northern economy was based more on industry than agriculture. In fact, the northern industries were purchasing the raw cotton and turning it into finished goods. This disparity between the two set up a

Throughout American history, there comes a time where a great invention is crafted that comes and impacts our society greatly. Inventions usually have an overall positive affect on the world, but not in the case of the cotton gin. 1792 is when Eli Whitney invented this machine(king cotton) When Eli invented it, he had no idea of the effect that it would have to American Society. The invention of the cotton gin caused an increase of slaves in the south with harsher working conditions, and it also fluctuated the southern economy, which all played a major role in the Civil War.

With the economic system, the south had a very hard time producing their main source “cotton and tobacco”. “Cotton became commercially significant in the 1790’s after the invention of a new cotton gin by Eli Whitney. (PG 314)” Let