How Did The Rise Of The Cotton Industry

The Rise of The Cotton Industry, 1793

The Industrial Revolution is a significant event in history that still to this day have a profound impact on the modern world. It began first in Britain in the 1700s but soon expanded to the rest of Europe and North America. Before the innovations of the Industrial Revolution, most production depended on water, wind or human energy.(History Crunch)

The rise of the cotton industry started when Eli Whitney, an American inventor learned that Southern plantation owners were eager for a way to make cotton growing profitable.

Whitney knew that if he could invent such a machine, he could apply to the federal government for a patent.(National Archives) Before this invention, cotton was extremely time consuming

There wasn't much to benefit from while producing it. The cotton gin did the hardest part of the process, removing the seeds, which was more efficient than before. The cotton gin turned cotton into a cash crop.

Farmers started purchasing more land to plant it, purchased more cotton gins to revolutionize cotton, and bought more slaves to run the systems. The most significant effect of the cotton gin, however, was the growth of slavery. While it was true that the cotton gin reduced the labor of removing seeds, it did not reduce the need for enslaved labor to grow and pick the cotton. In fact, the opposite occurred. Cotton growing became so profitable for enslavers that it greatly increased their demand for both land and enslaved labor.(National Archives)

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The birth of the cotton gin made Great Britain and other European countries demand more cotton and that meant that more slaves were needed to work on plantations. This was a good sign because the sale of tobacco had come to a halt. The people needed something new to help the economy flourish again. Cotton was the new thing and with the help of the newly created cotton gin, demand for this crop soared. Slaves help improve the profits of the