Cotton gin The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1794 was one of the most effective and important inventions of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The cotton gin is a machine that removes the seeds from cotton. Before the cotton gin was invented, cotton required manual labor to separate the seed. The invention led to much greater and faster productivity of cotton and also led Southerners to grow more cotton, so the economy of the South grew a lot. The use of the slaves to grow cotton produced tension between the North, where people were anti-slavery, and the South, where people were mostly pro-slavery due to its economic benefits. Without the invention of the cotton gin, the level of slavery might have had to increase further, or Southern economy would have stayed less developed. However, either way, sectional tensions would have increased. If the cotton gin had not been invented, the Southerners would have needed more slaves to do the machine work of the cotton gin. The gin is a mechanical machine …show more content…
So, without the cotton gin, the economy of the South would stay less developed. Even though South could use slaves to do the work the cotton gin did, eventually their manual speed would decrease, as they tired. A machine did not get tired. However, the Southern planters would still have grown cotton, because it was a cash crop. Cotton was used in many states in the United States in variety of different ways. Cotton was used to make clothes, furniture, and etc. Also the cotton seed was used to make oil used in cooking. Many slaves were involved in producing Southern cotton, and their use increased the tensions between North and South. Another big market for Southern cotton was England, which bought a lot of it. Indeed, during the Civil War, the Northern embargo of Southern ports to keep the cotton from going to England was one of the events that helped defeat the
Invented by Eli WHitney in 1793, because of the cotton gin it reduced the amount of time and cost of separating the cotton seeds from white fiber. Due to the cotton gin, cotton farming became much more profitable in the South. Because of the cotton gin, the demand of the cotton grew and increased slavery. There was economic consequences due to the cotton gin and the increase of the cotton
The invention of the Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney changed the South for the better. It made the South a major world trader as well as a wealthy region. It did this by increasing cotton production and slave trade in the lower U.S. Almost as soon as the Cotton Gin was developed it produced major success. It allowed Planters and Yeomen’s alike, to produce cotton as a faster rate.
American Inventors: Eli Whitney Eli Whitney (December 8, 1765 – January 8, 1825) was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the south. Whitney's invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States. Despite the social and economic impact of his invention, Whitney lost many profits in legal battles over patent infringement for the cotton gin. Thereafter, he turned his attention into securing contracts with the government in the manufacture of muskets for the newly formed United States Army.
Therefore, to grow more cotton, there had to be more labor. So planters used slave labor to produce more cotton. As a result, cotton production grew along with the growth of slavery. Cotton then became the dominant source of wealth for the country. Cotton enriched southern farmers as well as Northern bankers,
As more and more southerners became wealthier they bought more slaves to do the work. With more slaves, work was done faster (389). Lastly, the Spinning Mill was built and this helped the cotton industry because it spun raw cotton into thread (298). So weavers could use it to make
Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin in 1794.The cotton gin was a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber so you didn't have to do it by hand. Picking cotton by hand before the cotton gin was invented took an entire day to get one pound of cotton but once people had the help of the cotton gin, sometimes they were able to remove seeds from about fifty pounds of cotton. However, to make a profit off of his invention, Whitney started renting it off to people to use and charging them extra to have him pick the cotton himself. Because the taxes were so high, and he could make the machines, instead of being paid in money, he got to keep three fifths of the cotton that he picked.
People have argued that because the South grew the cotton and the North shipped it that they should not have had such a disagreement on the institution of slavery. However, the South very much disliked the way the system worked because they had to pay both the North and Great Britain in order to ship the cotton. This was because the North would take the shipment of cotton down the Mississippi River and then take it to a port where the British would ship it to England from the port. The trading of items from Europe to the South for cotton was a major part of the southern
Slavery ended in the late 1800s and it was a major controversy to the Northern States. The Northern states were anti-slavery while the Southern states were pro-slavery. Since they were two different opinions because the northern states did not accept or want slavery to keep happening it ended All this slavery controversy and war could have been avoided by simply making slavery legal in all states, replacing the president, and machines being created faster than they were. Also, there were ways they could settle these opinions, and one way is they could have made slavery legal which all the people would have come together and unite as one.
As the antebellum Americans made several advancements in technological innovations, this helped the North overcome the South agriculturally. With the new inventions such as the cotton gin, the reaper, the steel tipped plow, and new ways to revive unfertile soil, the North had many advantages to aid them while they were gone to war. As these new inventions were created each had an impact on how and why the differences between the North and South came to be. Although the creation of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney improved the South’s economy it also made the South more dependent on slaves.
With pro-slavery citizens and abolitionists going at it, this violence in the west would soon spread, causing slavery to impact expansion at a very fast rate. As life and business continued, slaves in the southern states were what the people relied on. Southerners believed slavery was the foundation for their economy. In the north, slavery had proven unprofitable by the end of the American Revolution, due to the invention of the cotton [Last Name] 3 gin.
If you were in poverty in the south it was very hard to get out of. Along with that they had no factories which contributed to people not being able to get out of poverty. Later on the south relied on the north and europe for many things such as borrowing money, farm tools and furniture. “ One southerner described the situation as a burial show to how the south depended on the north for so many goods in the 1850’s.” Most Southerners believed that if cotton remained king that their future for themselves and for their economy was
Alexander Hamilton i. Alexander Hamilton was born in 1755 and became one of the leading founding fathers of the United States. He was a strong opinioned federalist. ii. Alexander also became the first Secretary of the Treasury. While being the secretary of the Treasury he wanted to assume states debts into a federal system of tax in order to help get the newly independent country out of debt.
It revolutionized the cotton industry by making it more profitable. A machine was now used to remove seeds from cotton rather than having to remove them by hand. This allowed more cotton to be processed quicker which made production of cotton more efficient for farmers. Prior to the invention of the cotton gin, slavery was actually dying out in the southern United States due to how labor intensive the removal of seeds from cotton had become.
Slavery increased by 70%. Cotton farming exploded. By 1860, New England was importing over 400 million pounds of cotton. The effect of the cotton gin wasn’t just limited to cotton farmers though. With the South focusing all of their energy on cotton, someone had to feed them.
Another negative impact was that most of the south produced cotton and barely any transportation and no factories. Although there were many negative impacts of the cotton gin, there were also many positive impacts. One of the positive impacts was that clothing became cheaper since a lot of cotton was being grown. Another positive impact was that the production brought trade with other