Prior to the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, slaves had to hand pick over one hundred pounds of cotton per day. New technology, ways of transportation, and innovations in markets had a positive major effect on the United States from 1793 to 1850.
New technology in the U.S. allowed the states to produce goods more efficiently. In 1793, American inventor Eli Whitney created the cotton gin, which allowed slaves in the South to easily separate cotton fiber from the seeds. The economic impact of Whitney’s gin was vast because it enabled slaves to produce over two hundred pounds of cotton per day. In the North, the invention of the Lowell mills spun and wove cotton consequently leading to much faster production and an increase in textile manufacturing. Before the Lowell system, textile manufacturing was much smaller and more individual. Invented in 1837, the steel plow caused farming in the West to become much easier and faster as it broke up the tough Midwest soil.
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In the South, steamships enabled the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to be “highways” of commerce. They made round-trip shipping goods and products more efficient and self-sufficiency decreased as steamboat transportation increased commercial trading. The Erie Canal in the North stimulated economic growth by decreasing transportation costs and the prices of the good themselves. Canals also encouraged westward expansion and ended isolation in the West. Railroads eventually replaced canals since they were cheaper and faster to build and were essential for America’s economy by linking all the states together and providing access to new land for farming. The Cumberland Road was a major route to the west from Maryland to Illinois. The road changed small western towns into booming commercial