Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin

“Necessity is the mother of all invention.” Cotton labor conducted by slaves was arduous and took long periods of time. A necessity for a faster way to separate the cotton seeds from the fiber evolved because it would take slaves laborious hours to created small amounts of cotton. In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and patented it a year later which mechanized the cotton process. This had the benefit of lowering the price of cotton production and removing slaves from that part of the process. It also had the advantage of amplifying the demand for the white valuable crop. During the antebellum period, Eli Whitney’s cotton gin increased the desire for slavery because of its leading technology, the world’s accelerating demand for cotton,

In only sixty minutes, the cotton gin was able to manufacture as much cotton as one-hundred slaves could in a day. The profit of raw cotton increased by twice as much every decade after 1800, which was around the time Eli Whitney patented his invention (Farrow 9). During this cotton gin period, cotton demand accelerated so rapidly, tobacco value dropped, exports of rice remained constant, and sugar prospered only in Louisiana (Farrow 10). Numerous plantation owners switched their crop to cotton because it rapidly became immensely profitable (Farrow 7). When the slaves and demand for cotton accelerated, consequently, the need for larger plantations increased. The process of separating cotton seeds expedited, leading to a boom in amount of slaves and a growing magnitude of cotton plantations. Plantation owners required more slaves to work the fields and pick cotton quicker so that they were able to meet the fast production of cotton cause new cotton gin. Forced laborers rarely had a break because they would work from day to night. Slaves continued working and some would never stop until the fortunate event of death would take their miserable destitute lives. Plantation owners strongly desired more land and slave labor because cotton was becoming extremely prosperous. In the span of 70 years, a feeble six slave states increased to an impactful fifteen,

In the years before Whitney’s invention, the prosperity of slavery was depleting, causing Abolitionists to assume Congress would ultimately outlaw slavery entirely (Wise). Northerners were provoked to act on slavery when it expeditiously grew in the South. The abolitionists of the North believed that this painful labor in cotton and other cash crops was a form of cruel, inhumane torture. When the southerners began to import more slaves, the abolitionists realized that this problem was not subsiding. The abolitionists were incited to react harshly towards the South when they needed more slaves to manage plantations. This caused plantation owners to treat their slaves even worse. Slavery was the catalyst that sparked Civil War. Subsequently, the efficiency of the cotton gin had the negative impact of increasing the slavery population in America. Southerners became extremely affluent by joining the cotton industry so they were stubborn about maintaining their slaves. When the Abolitionists proposed nullifying slavery, the Southerners decided to secede (Wise). The cotton gin was an invention that caused vast amounts of growth and prosperity for the United States, lead to much death, but aided in the effort to eradicate America’s most atrocious practice, slavery