The Cotton Gin: Cause Of The Civil War

Before the cotton gin was invented, picking and processing cotton was a very difficult and tedious task. It would take a long ten hours for slaves to separate the seeds from the cotton fibers from only one pound of cotton(a turn of a crank). With cotton being so difficult to process, the demand for cotton was very low, wool was used instead. Also the dependency on slaves was not high either due to the lack of crops needing to be harvested. This all changed when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.

Economic and social differences between the north and the south was one of the events of slavery leading up to the Civil War. When the cotton gin was invented in 1793, cotton became a very profitable crop. Before the invention of the cotton gin, it would take one slave a day to remove the seeds from two pounds of cotton. After the invention of the cotton gin, it could be used to clean two pounds of cotton in just half an hour. With the invention of the cotton gin came an increase in the number of plantations willing and wanting to move from other crops to cotton. The south raised rice, sugar, and indigo, but cotton was its main crop. This move from other crops to cotton would cause for a greater need for a larger amount of laborers, meaning a greater need for slaves. The south, becoming a one crop economy, then became more dependent on cotton, thus more dependent on slaves. The north, on the other hand, was less focused on crops and

Life before the cotton gin was very strange, unpredictable, and production of cotton was very sluggish. In the 1800s, before the cotton gin, slaves had to pick seeds out of the cotton fiber by hand. Production was so slow southerners began to give slaves breaks until the cotton gin was invented. (Cotton). “The seeds could only be removed by hand, which proved slow and inefficient, Whitney once remarked to a friend that he had never met anyone able to clean more than one pound a day.” (Elizabeth). During this time the only way was by hand, it took slaves days just to get a pound or two.

The cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney, was a mechanized way to remove to sticky green seeds from the fluffy white cotton balls. (Eli Whitney Museum) The hand powered cotton gin was a huge advancement, but the larger versions of the cotton gin which were pulled by a horse, could produce much more. According to Whitney, "One man and a horse will do more than fifty men with

The cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney in 1794 had a powerful impact on the slavery business and the Civil War. It allowed one slave to produce much more cotton, making the demand for cotton and slaves much higher, ultimately provoking the civil war and causing much more pain and suffering than what was needed.

It was an agricultural haven for cotton, but also an area of innovation and adaptation. The businesspersons that resided in the South consisted of Northern and Southern businessmen looking to make a name for themselves. Furthermore, in this pursuit for wealth and power they created innovations that forever changed America. The invention of the Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney created a chain of industrial, social, and economical events that made America the nation it is today. These men sought to make a better America, consequently some innovations led to the abuse of human life and liberty, but out of this pain, a stronger nation was born. The fire that was set by these visionaries, even if it was lit by greed, created a nation hungry for the pursuit of a better life and better

Before 1793 production of cotton was not very profitable due to the fact that it took an entire day to hand clean a single pound of cotton. However, with the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, over 50 pounds of cotton could be cleaned a day, tuning cotton into one of the staples of the southern economy, and thus shaping social and political history in the south.

     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.

Before the cotton gin the slave owners did not require as many slaves, but their production was way lower. One person with the cotton gin could produce ten times more cotton than without. It used to be where one slave in about 10 hours could make 1 pound of fiber from the seeds and now with the cotton gin Americans cotton has gone up rapidly, the US was producing cotton in the world as well. History.com stated “ the cotton gin was an invention that was just a more efficient way”. Even though the Cotton gin was such a good thing, Whitney did not think of the negative effects it would have such as slavery growing. There would be states changing to slave states because of the land they needed to create more cotton which would lead to having a needing more slaves. And because of the cotton gin slaves would now labor on even larger plantations where it would be more relentless. Even though the black population was so upset with there being so much slavery, they were happy to have jobs and not just sitting at home. It gave them something to do, it gave them a purpose if they didn't feel like it. Sometimes the owners would make them feel worthless but working with the cotton gin, it really helped the future with growing it and having good ways to make it and separate it that was easy. With the cotton gin in the Civil War the south had many disadvantages

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

After the invention of the cotton gin, the yield of raw cotton doubled each decade after 1800. Demand was fueled by other inventions of the Industrial Revolution, such as the machines to spin and weave it and the steamboat to transport it. By mid-century America was growing three-quarters of the world's supply of cotton, most

     After the invention of the cotton gin, the production of unprocessed cotton doubled each decade after 1800. Other inventions of the Industrial Revolution were the machines to spin and weave cotton and the steamboat to transport it. America was growing three quarters of the world's supply of cotton in the mid-century. Most of it was shipped to England or New England where it was made into cloth. During this time, tobacco’s value decreased, rice exports stayed at the same price, and sugar began to flourish, but only

Therefore, the population of slaves started to grow again in the 1790s and spread into other lands that became the cotton belt (Clifford, 2005). At round 1793, cotton cultivation expanded into large scale as a result of the invention of gin. The slaves in the southern states were used as laborers in spite of the American Revolution’s natural rights philosophy (Clifford, 2005). According to Clifford (2005), the slave owners started to improve the lives of their slaves on the cotton plantations after a

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