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Why Did The Industrial Revolution Increase The Demand Of Southern Cotton

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The Industrial Revolution greatly increased the demand for southern cotton. Textile mills in the North and in Britain needed more and more cotton to make cloth. At first, southern planters could not meet the demand. They could grow plenty of cotton because the South’s soil and climate were ideal.

Planters needed a better way to clean cotton. When Whitney learned of the planters’ problem, he decided to build a machine to clean cotton. Whitney came up with a model, so that cotton was swept between two rollers, and some metal teeth separated the seeds from the fibers. This machine had an enormous effect on the southern economy.

A single worker using a cotton gin could do the work of 50 people cleaning cotton by hand. Because of the gin, planters
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