Cotton Gin Research Paper

932 Words2 Pages

Elizabeth Rolfes

Per. ½

12/13/15

Cotton

“This machine may be turned by water or with a horse, with the greatest ease, and one man and a horse will do more than fifty men with the old machine. It makes labor fifty times less, without throwing any class of people out of business.” - Eli Whitney, 1793

In 1793, a new technology swept through The South, completely transforming the region and the culture of those who inhabited it. The cotton gin, a new machine that made growing cotton more productive, allowed for the plantation owner lifestyle to become an ideal for wealthy southern families. The efficiency of the cotton gin transformed the United States economy and caused slavery in America to continue long past its time.

The cotton gin
Before the cotton gin, the cotton industry was a dying one. Slaves worked on American plantations, but their numbers were decreasing as the cotton industry slowed. The cotton gin revamped the plantation industry entirely, growing cotton was now worthwhile. As cotton plantations expanded, The South demanded more slaves to keep up with the increase of cotton production. Before 1793, a laborer could only clean the seeds from one pound of cotton a day. With a cotton gin, the laborer could clean the seeds from 50 pounds of cotton in one day (“Cotton Gin”). Since a single slave could now clean cotton quickly, the demand for cotton pickers began to rise. The plantation owners turned to slavery as a way to fill their fields with free labor. In 1790, in the first federal census, 697,897 slaves living in the United States were counted. Only twenty years late, in 1810, 1.2 million slaves were recorded to be living in America (“Growth and Entrenchment of Slavery”). Slavery offered an efficient option for the farmers to keep their plantations running smoothly. Due to how cheap slavery was for the plantation owners, the demand for slaves skyrocketed, all farmers in The South wanted free labor for their
Due to its high volume of output in cotton production, the cotton gin was an essential tool in the American economy and allowed for cotton to be produced for an extremely cheap price. Eli Whitney had expected his invention to help the farmers of The South, but couldn’t have imagined the extremely negative impact that his invention would have on the millions of Americans enslaved. The cotton industry and slavery were both slowing before his invention. Had the cotton gin never been invented, slavery might have died out long before 1865, and millions of people would have avoided this miserable fate.

Bibliography

"Cotton Gin." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2015. 6 Dec. 2015.

"Cotton Gin and Eli Whitney." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 7 Dec. 2015.

Eli Whitney, Jr. to his Father, 11 September 1793. Eli Whitney Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

“Growth and Entrenchment of Slavery." Africans in America. PBS, 7 Dec. 2015.

"Short-Staple Cotton." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2015. 8 Dec.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Apostles Of Disunion

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    Therefore, the South argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have a profound impact as slavery served as the backbone of the southern economy. Slavery was an integral part of the South’s way of life that they did not want to relinquish. In fact, Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin transformed the South and made slavery even more important. Therefore, in an effort to convince the other states to secede, Southern commissioners traveled to the states to give speeches in which they would use emotion in order to gain support from the states. First, Southern commissioners feared racial equality and claimed that “our fathers made this a government for the white man.” (604) Secondly, the commissioners feared that the Northern Republicans would infiltrate the South “to excite the slave to cut the throat of his master.” (605) Lastly, the commissioners feared interracial amalgamation and matrimony. According to Dew, “whites forced to endure racial equality, race war, a staining of the blood-who could tolerate such things?” (605) Therefore, Dew successfully proves that the founding documents showed that the South seceded over

    Read More

  • The Cotton Gin’s Impact on American Industry and Slavery

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    Smith, J. 2009. Making Cotton King. World Trade, July 1, 82. http://www.proquest.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/ (accessed January 6, 2010).

    Read More

  • How Did The Market Revolution Affect The Economy

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    America’s economies and regions were becoming more connected than ever, which also contributed to a resulting better economy. However, the dependence on agriculture and slavery in the South resulted in further sectionalism and isolating ties to England. Though the connection between the Midwest and the North was strong due to numerous railroads, canals, and paved roads, the South was not as included in the new Market Revolution that was taking place. In addition to this, the South barely traded with any of the other regions. In fact, the South exported most of its cotton to England, and imported foreign goods more than any other region. Only connected to England, the South cut off a substantial amount of ties with its American sister regions. Slavery also contributed to the economy of the South. The only region that relied on slaves, the South was the minority when it came to favoring the peculiar institution. The invention of Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin revived the need for slavery in the South which made the picking and production of cotton faster and more profitable that it was before. In the South, “Cotton was King,” and because of this, the

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The 19th Century Market Revolution

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    The 19th century market revolution was a period of dramatic socioeconomic development in the United States. According to Ronald Takaki, this “revolution” culminated in a boom of entreprenuership, ease of business, and an insatiable demand for labor that led to the racialization of minorities in the United States. After a stagnate economy in the late 1700s due to poor soil quality, the invention of the Cotton Gin by Elie Whitney jumpstarted the market by allowing tougher strains of cotton to be grown and processed. Suddenly, the “Cotton Kingdom” was immensely profitable. In addition, a decrease in shipping costs (76) and spreading use of banking and capital (76) made doing business in the US easier. The United States also had, in contrary to

    Read More

  • Slavery in America between 1800 and 1860

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within the economy a great development had been achieved when the upper south handed its power to the lower south all due to the rise of an agricultural production. This expansion was led by the excessive growth of cotton in the southern areas. It spread rapidly throughout America and especially in the South. During these times it gave another reason to keep the slavery at its all time high. Many wealthy planters started a ‘business’ by having their slaves work the cotton plantations, which this was one of a few ways slavery was still in full effect. Not only were there wealthy planters, at this time even if you were a small slave-holder you were still making money. While all of this had been put into the works, Americans had approximately 410,000 slaves move from the upper south to the ‘cotton states’. This in turn created a sale of slaves in the economy to boom throughout the Southwest. If there is a question as to ‘why’, then lets break it d...

    Read More

  • Why Did The South Secede In 1860 Research Paper

    1422 Words  | 3 Pages

    Geographically, North and South were very different places. The pastures of New England were similar to those found in England, suitable for a variety of uses. Hot Southern prairie lands were perfect for cotton growing, a lucrative business at this time. Following the invention of Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin, the South became increasingly dependent on this crop, and an entire society grew out of it. The society was one of wealthy planters, who led a life similar to the landed gentry of England, controlling politics and society of the day. In the fields laboured Negro slaves, usually only a handful per plantation, though larger farms were occasionally seen. In addition, there lived poor whites, tenant farmers or smallholders, who eked out a living from the land. This contrasted sharply with Northern society, where industrialisation flourished, creating wealthy entrepreneurs and employing cheap immigrant labour. Given the localised nature of media, and difficulties of transport two cultures grew up in the same nation, remarkably different and often suspicious of one another.

    Read More

  • The Cause Of The Civil War: Eli Whitneys Cotton Gin

    1770 Words  | 4 Pages

    This invention changed the way the South functioned, and the ripple effect it created changed the course of history forever. The ripple effect caused by Eli Whitney’s cotton gin can be seen as the driving force behind many of the conflicts between North and South, and eventually culminating in the Civil War. Before Eli Whitney’s invention, slavery was dying in the South. The price of tobacco had plummeted, and planters were freeing slaves because of the high cost of feeding, housing and clothing them. When Eli Whitney introduced his invention the cotton market exploded. Cotton began to be grown in enormous quantities because it was good for making clothes, and with the invention of the cotton gin easier to produce. This explosion in the growth of the cotton market rejuvenated the slave trade. This time, though, the slave trade was not between the U.S. and Africa, but instead between the Old South, and the New South. The Old South began to “breed” slaves to sell to the cotton farmers in the New South. These farmers needed large numbers of slaves because once the cotton was ripe, it needed to be picked quickly. The price of slaves skyrocketed, and this new crop ensured the practice of slavery would continue. This continuati...

    Read More

  • Slavery in American Society: Impact and Evolution

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    Some of the earliest records of slavery date back to 1760 BC; Within such societies, slavery worked in a system of social stratification (Slavery in the United States, 2011), meaning inequality among different groups of people in a population (Sajjadi, 2008). After the establishment of Jamestown in 1607 as the first permanent English Chesapeake colony in the New World that was agriculturally-based; Tobacco became the colonies chief crop, requiring time consuming and intensive labor (Slavery in colonial America, 2011). Due to the headlight system established in Maryland in 1640, tobacco farmers looked for laborers primarily in England, as each farmer could obtain workers as well as land from importing English laborers. The farmers could then use such profits to purchase the passage of more laborers, thus gaining more land. Indentured servants, mostly male laborers and a few women immigrated to Colonial America and contracted to work from four to seven years in exchange for their passage (Norton, 41). Once services ended after the allotted amount of time, th...

    Read More

  • Slavery in the Late 1700s and Early 1800s.

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery had a big impact on the market, but most of it was centered on the main slave crop, cotton. Primarily, the south regulated the cotton distribution because it was the main source of income in the south and conditions were nearly perfect for growing it. Cheap slave labor made it that much more profitable and it grew quickly as well. Since the development in textile industry in the north and in Britain, cotton became high in demand all over the world. The south at one point, was responsible for producing “eighty percent of the world’s cotton”. Even though the South had a “labor force of eighty-four percent working, it only produced nine percent of the nations manufactured goods”, (Davidson 246). This statistic shows that the South had an complete advantage in manpower since slavery wasn’t prohibited. In the rural South, it was easy for plantation owners to hire slaves to gather cotton be...

    Read More

  • Cotton Gin Dbq

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    The south, which was mostly agricultural, depended on the production of cotton. It was very important to their economy. Before Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin was used throughout the south, the United States produced about 750,000 bales of hay in 1830 (How the Cotton Gin). By 1850 it had increased to 2.85 billion bales of hay (How the Cotton Gin). Most of this was in the south because it had the weather conditions needed for cotton to grow. In 1793 Whitney saw the difficulty of taking out cotton seeds by hand (Cefrey 10-11). He decided to create a machine that could clean cotton faster than a human could. The Cotton Gin made the processing of cotton much faster and quicker. As a result of this, land owners were now able to have large cotton plantations across the south (How the Cotton Gin). Southerners were becoming wealthy very fast because of the cotton gin. Eli Whitney’s invention of the Cotton Gin made cotton the South’s main crop making more slave labor needed and political tensions rise.

    Read More

  • Slavery in The Cotton Kingdom

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    The reason why slavery spread into the cotton kingdom after revolution is because the tobacco income plummeted as white setters from Virginia and Carolinas forcing the original Native Americans inhabitants farther and farther west where they established plantations. The wide spread use of the cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, made these cotton plantations more efficient and profitable. Around 1820, slavery was concentrated in tobacco growing areas of Virginia, Kentucky along coastal region of South Carolina and Northern Georgia and in 1860s it spread deep in the South (Alabama, Texas, Louisiana) following the spread of cotton.

    Read More

  • The Market Revolution On American Society

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many social groups of America at this time were impacted by the market revolution. Two groups that I am going to focus on are the blacks and the middle class. The slaves were impacted by the invention of Eli Whitney's cotton gin in 1793. In Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner, he tells of the slowing of the cotton market in the "Cotton Kingdom" due to the slow, tedious work of removing the seeds from the plant. And when the cotton gin came in to play, it expedited the process of cotton picking. This tool did indeed revolutionize slavery in the South. Thanks to the cotton gin, a rise in demand for cotton led to more slaves being needed. Foner tells us, "In 1793, when Whitney designed his invention, the United States produced 5 million pounds of cotton. By 1820, the crop had grown to nearly 170 million pounds" (Foner 260). In a painting by Lewis Miller named Slave Trader, Sold in Tennessee depicts the image of slaves being sold in 2 lines, with men on horseback holding a rifle guiding the slaves on their journey. The caption for the image explains that the slaves are being marched from Virginia to Tennessee. The bl...

    Read More

  • How Did Eli Whitney Affect Society

    616 Words  | 2 Pages

    If it wasn't for that invention slavery would have ended sooner than it did. Slavery was in favor because of that invention, and that's supposed to be a ”good” thing. Slavery raised a whopping 70% because of that invention. That means more people were taken from their home, and most people who were to become slaves didn't survive the trip. This is just one of the many reasons as to how much damage the creation of the cotton gin did. All this invention has done for us was good, but what it has done for others is just plain cruel. This is all the cotton gin doing, and frankly not in a good way whatsoever. It may have done wonders in some ways, but at what cost was the price for our

    Read More

  • The Economic Exploitation of African Americans

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    Economic conditions, including soil and climate determined the number of slaves in a given locality. The majority of the black population were found in the colonies that produced the greatest agricultural staples, such as sugar, rice, tobacco and cotton. The land most suitable for cotton production became the land where plantation slavery was most concentrated. Since picking cotton was relatively simple, it was a powerful stimulant for exploitation, providing year-round employment for men, women, children and the elderly.

    Read More

  • What Are Eli Whitney's Major Accomplishments

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    Green’s monetary support helped Eli Whitney a lot. Throughout the winter her support help him financially, thus helping him to create a machine through the winter. Eli Whitney was fascinated with solving problems, dealing with complications and building machines. For the reason that, cotton dealt with various amount of difficulties and complications, he wanted to improve and regulate the problem. He wanted something to clean the cotton and remove the seeds. During the winter, the invention of the “cotton gin” machine was created. In fact, to pull the cotton fibers, he used wire screens, rotating brushes and small hooks combined. Rather than having a large amount of workers to clean more cotton, the machine cleaned more cotton in a couple of hours. Eventually, he demonstrated and exposed the idea to other acquaintances. In fact, his colleagues were shocked to witness a fascinating machine that in less or around a hour could clean an excessive load of cotton. The fact that Eli Whitney attended Yale University opened other doors for him with the building of clientele and

    Read More

More about Cotton Gin Research Paper

Open Document