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HIST 1301
Current Semester
Angela Lakwete. Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
To grace the cover of her book's paperback edition, Angela Lakwete chose William L. Sheppard's illustration, "The First Cotton Gin," first published in Harper's Weekly in 1869. In it, Sheppard drew planters evaluating ginned cotton and slaves operating a roller gin, a forerunner to Whitney's famous invention. The image, Lakwete argues, gets to the heart of the matter: the question of Eli Whitney's paternity of that most troublesome of all American inventions, the cotton gin, as well as the role southerners of both races played in its invention. Sheppard sought to dilute
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what historians since the early nineteenth century had promulgated, the myth--still alive and well in most textbooks--that no other gin existed before Whitney's eureka moment in 1794. While on a visit to Georgia, the myth continues, Whitney (full of Yankee ingenuity but new to the cotton industry) came to the rescue of black and white southerners (a head-scratching bunch of dimwits who could only think to finger gin the cotton) by solving the problem of quickly extricating seeds from cotton without (completely) destroying the fiber. By identifying the northern mythmakers and the southern debunkers, as well as providing a painstaking explanation of the evolution of the ancient invention, Lakwete properly exposes cotton gins (not just Whitney's) as cultural artifacts with ample historical baggage. In doing so, she begins a long overdue revision of what textbooks and history teachers have mistakenly preached regarding Whitney, cotton gins, and the lack of southern ingenuity. Of course, change takes time. In the decade since Lakwete's scholarship forced this professor to revise his classroom comments about gins, rare is the student who does not revert reflexively, on exams and papers, to the Whitney myth. A graduate of the Hagley Program in the History of Industrialization at the University of Delaware and now an associate professor at Auburn University, Lakwete organizes Inventing the Cotton Gin chronologically through the first five chapters, and thematically in the last three. Exploding the Whitney myth in the book's opening sentence, she introduces readers to cotton varieties and early cotton gins in the first chapter. So much for a surprise ending. Global in scope and research, this chapter also features the emergence of single roller gin technology during the first century C.E. and its dispersion throughout Asia, Africa, and North America. Double roller gins appeared about a dozen centuries later in India and China, but did not dislodge the single roller. Lakwete completes this background chapter by illustrating Great Britain's rise in the world textile trade. In chapter 2, Lakwete narrows the focus to the Americas and advances the timeframe to the eve of Whitney's invention. Planters in the Caribbean dominated cotton production early in the eighteenth century, but mainland producers reentered the trade in the 1770s when the British mechanized cotton spinning. Lakwete describes American inventions such as the fully foot-powered gin, the barrel gin, and Joseph Eve's self-feeding gin as conservative modernizations of the roller gin, "faithful to the pinch principle" and successful in preserving the quality of the cotton fiber (p. 46). Contrary to popular belief, ginning was not a bottleneck for the American industry before Whitney. Lakwete also provides interesting background on the policy debates of 1787 between Tench Coxe, the "father of the American cotton industry," and Thomas Jefferson over the role of government in economic development (p. 36). Reinforcing her thesis that Whitney was just one of several important inventors of the gin, Lakwete presents his story in detail in chapter 3. Covering the years 1790-1810, she argues that Whitney's unique contribution was to patent a "new ginning principle" and a "new kind of gin," the wire-toothed gin (p. 47). The new machine pulled the short staple fiber from the seed more quickly than the roller gin's pinching action, enhancing quantity over quality and forcing textile and cotton producers to reevaluate their priorities. Modifications to the wire-toothed gin by other inventors led to the saw gin and a series of lawsuits. Lakwete demonstrates that Phineas Miller, Whitney's partner, and William Johnson, a judge in one of the many patent lawsuits, helped invent the Whitney myth by "collapsing" two centuries of successful roller ginning into Whitney's invention, and thereby created THE moment of southern economic discontinuity (p. 71). Lakwete begs to differ. The saw gin represented a different form of gin from what had come before, but the change was not, as has been widely proclaimed, similar to the jump from horse and buggy to automobile. Planters and gin makers did not abandon the roller gin immediately.
In chapter 4, Lakwete depicts the thirty-year transition from the roller to saw gin as more evolutionary that revolutionary. Whitney's invention was an important advance in cotton gin history, but many southerners before and after Whitney played vital roles in the development of the machine. In a direct writing style, Lakwete presents in-depth and wide-ranging research with helpful summaries at the beginning and end of each chapter. She painstakingly explains complicated technological issues, including the nuts and bolts of each machine, while providing the reader with context. This is an important book, and now in paperback form, a good candidate for graduate level courses. As is evident in this reviewer's attempt to summarize her chapters, Lakwete had her work cut out for her in trying to explain this complex industry and its even more complex machines. While Inventing the Cotton Gin serves as an exciting revision and raises even more exciting questions, Lakwete's detailed exploration of cotton ginning makes for slow reading for those not technologically inclined. It is understandable that Lakwete should demonstrate the differences between Whitney's machine and its predecessors and successors, and it is helpful to reveal the evolutions in production, marketing, and the needs of planters. But this reviewer would have preferred less detail and more summary, guidance, and context. Lakwete documents many cases of, and raises tantalizing questions about, southern industrialization, but readers of H-Southern-Industry will find themselves wanting more. Specifically, she declares in the preface that the "innovative southern gin industry belies constructions of failure read back from 1865. Instead, it forces a reconciliation of an industrializing, modernizing, and slave labor-based South" (p. ix). While Lakwete documents such innovation and returns to this theme occasionally, readers may wish for a
fuller exploration of context--the cotton gin as "the emblem of the cotton south," the historiography of industrialization of the antebellum South, and an understanding of the sense of industrial inferiority among southerners (p. 176). This reader would have also enjoyed more discussion about the relationships of the cotton gin to race in the South and Coxe's new nationalism, and of zones and communities of gin makers to southern industrialization. The textbook The American Promise discusses the importance of technology in Chapter 13 entitled The Slave South but Lakwete’s description provides more emotional and mental aspect, things that are not covered in the textbook. I would highly recommend this book. Lakwete's Inventing the Cotton Gin is an important addition to the growing list of works on southern industrialization. Her argument that continuity, not the myth of discontinuity, marked the history of cotton gins, is well documented and has important implications for understanding the antebellum and postbellum periods. Whitney's gin was not a major turning point in American history, or even southern history, but part of a long tradition of innovation and collaboration; innovation by northern and southern inventors and machinists, and collaboration between inventors and planters, blacks and whites, slaves and masters. As with other good history books, it challenges what we think we knew, and sends us searching for more clues.
In “Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism: A New Look at an Old Question” James McPherson argues that the North and the South are two very different parts of the country in which have different ideologies, interests, and values. Mcpherson writes this to show the differences between the north and the south. He gives perspectives from other historians to show how the differently the differences were viewed. These differences included the north being more industrialized while the south was more agricultural. He gives evidence to how the differences between the north and south came together as the south produced tobacoo, rice, sugar and cotton, which was then sent to the north to be made into clothing or other fabrics. Mcpherson analyzes the differences
Jennifer Thompson-Cannino was raped at knife point in her apartment. She was able to escape and identify Ronald Cotton as her attacker. The detective conducting the lineup told Jennifer that she had done great, confirming to her that she had chosen the right suspect. Eleven years later, DNA evidence proved that the man Jennifer Identified, Ronald Cotton was innocent and wrongfully convicted. Instead, Bobby Poole was the real perpetrator. Sadly, there are many other cases of erroneous convictions. Picking cotton is a must read for anybody because it educates readers about shortcomings of eyewitness identification, the police investigative process and the court system.
Prior to the cotton gin, a laborer could only pick the seeds out of approximately one pound of cotton a day. The cotton gin made it possible to clean up to 50 pounds per day. The farmers could now plant as much cotton as they wanted and not have the worry about the difficulties of seed removal. Eli’s invention spurred the growth of the cotton industry, and the South took up the slogan “Cotton is King.”
Webster, Raymond B (1999). African American Firsts in Science & Technology, (1st Ed.) Farmington Hills, MI: Gale
One of the main goals in the life of an elite southern woman was to be continually regarded as a lady. While some southern women privately disagreed with the popular social and political mindsets of their era, most of their opinions were not so strong that they felt the need to publicly advocate for change. This was mainly due to the fact that if a woman expressed her opinion publicly, she would be seen as unladylike, which would be a blow to her reputation, the cornerstone of how she defined herself. In the book Mothers of Invention, Drew Gilpin Faust gives the reader Lucy Wood as an example of an elite southern woman who had a negative opinion of the African slave trade. In a letter to her future husband, Lucy Wood expressed that she felt the African slave trade was “extremely revolting,” however, she was also quick to add “[but] I have no political opinion and have a peculiar dislike of all females who discuss such matters.” (10). This elite southern woman was apparently more concerned with her own ladylike reputation than standing up for ...
Between 1800 and 1860 slavery in the American South had become a ‘peculiar institution’ during these times. Although it may have seemed that the worst was over when it came to slavery, it had just begun. The time gap within 1800 and 1860 had slavery at an all time high from what it looks like. As soon as the cotton production had become a long staple trade source it gave more reason for slavery to exist. Varieties of slavery were instituted as well, especially once international slave trading was banned in America after 1808, they had to think of a way to keep it going – which they did. Nonetheless, slavery in the American South had never declined; it may have just come to a halt for a long while, but during this time between 1800 and 1860, it shows it could have been at an all time high.
Fannie Lou Hamer and Malcolm X, like most civil rights activists, were exposed to the horrors of racism on a daily basis. These two leaders in particular, recognized a recurring theme of conscious oppression of Black Americans on the part of white Americans and identified the ways in which the “dominant” social group benefited from such oppression. Fannie Lou Hamer’s experience sharecropping and within the justice system helped her to develop an ideology of civil rights that centered on the empowerment of Black Americans. When Hamer was six years old the owner of the plantation on which her family lived and worked encouraged her to pick cotton. Making it seem like a game or challenge, the owner offered her a reward of food, knowing that the young girl was going hungry as a result of the limited amount of food he supplied to her family. Just like that, Hamer was tricked into picking cotton to earn minimal rewards.2 This anecdote from her life parallels the struggle of many sharecroppers at the time. Released from slavery, Black me...
During the American Revolution and the civil war, the North and the South experienced development of different socio-political and cultural environmental conditions. The North became an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse as a result of rise of movements like abolitionism and women’s right while the South became a cotton kingdom whose labor was sourced from slavery (Spark notes, 2011).
During the early 1800’s the demand for cotton had risen and it was now “King” of plantations in the southern region of the United States, where the climate was best suited. Now more then ever, slavery had become an essential component of most every cotton producing plantation. The Southerners knew slavery was wrong, but made justifications for it; within a span of 30 years these justifications had changed due to abolitionist movements (in the northern half of the county) and economic reasons which made cotton and slavery more profitable than ever.
The North and South were forming completely different economies, and therefore completely different geographies, from one another during the period of the Industrial Revolution and right before the Civil War. The North’s economy was based mainly upon industrialization from the formation of the American System, which was producing large quantities of goods in factories. The North was becoming much more urbanized due to factories being located in cities, near the major railroad systems for transportation of the goods, along with the movement of large groups of factory workers to the cities to be closer to their jobs. With the North’s increased rate of job opportunities, many different people of different ethnic groups and classes ended up working together. This ignited the demise of the North’s social order. The South was not as rapidly urbanizing as the North, and therefore social order was still in existence; the South’s economy was based upon the production of cotton after Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. Large cotton plantations’ production made up the bulk of America’s...
Since the beginning of slavery in the America, Africans have been deemed inferior to the whites whom exploited the Atlantic slave trade. Africans were exported and shipped in droves to the Americas for the sole purpose of enriching the lives of other races with slave labor. These Africans were sold like livestock and forced into a life of servitude once they became the “property” of others. As the United States expanded westward, the desire to cultivate new land increased the need for more slaves. The treatment of slaves was dependent upon the region because different crops required differing needs for cultivation. Slaves in the Cotton South, concluded traveler Frederick Law Olmsted, worked “much harder and more unremittingly” than those in the tobacco regions.1 Since the birth of America and throughout its expansion, African Americans have been fighting an uphill battle to achieve freedom and some semblance of equality. While African Americans were confronted with their inferior status during the domestic slave trade, when performing their tasks, and even after they were set free, they still made great strides in their quest for equality during the nineteenth century.
In the short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker explored the results of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation in African American society during the early 1900s. The “Reconstruction Era” marked a time when the United States, especially African American sects, sought to start over again from the aftermath (PBS, 2004). In the allegorical short story, Dee, or “Wangero,” watches the old family dwelling burn until the last dingy gray board lay in ruin--she showed relief (Walker, 1337).
In the late 1700’s the slave population in the United States had decreased. Before the invention of the cotton gin the South, which could only make money by farming, was loosing money because it didn’t have a major crop to export to England and the North besides tobacco and rice. However, these crops could be grown elsewhere. Cotton was the key because it couldn’t be grown in large amounts in other places, but only one type of cotton that could be cleaned easily. This was long-staple cotton. Another problem arose; long-staple cotton only could be grown along the coast. There was another strain of cotton that until then could not be cleaned easily so it wasn’t worth growing. The cotton gin was the solution to this problem. With the invention of the cotton gin short stemmed cotton could be cleaned easily making cotton a valued export and it could be grown anywhere in the south. The era of the “Cotton Kingdom” began with this invention leading into an explosion in the necessity of slaves.
With the economic system, the south had a very hard time producing their main source “cotton and tobacco”. “Cotton became commercially significant in the 1790’s after the invention of a new cotton gin by Eli Whitney. (PG 314)” Let alone, if they had a hard time producing goods, the gains would be extremely unprofitable. While in the North, “In 1837, John Deere patented a strong, smooth steel plow that sliced through prairie soil so cleanly that farmers called it the “singing plow.” (PG 281).” Deere’s company became the leading source to saving time and energy for farming as it breaks much more ground to plant more crops. As well as mechanical reapers, which then could harvest twelve acres a day can double the corn and wheat. The North was becoming more advanced by the second. Many moved in the cities where they would work in factories, which contributed to the nation’s economic growth because factory workers actually produced twice as much of labor as agricultural workers. Steam engines would be a source of energy and while coal was cutting prices in half actually created more factories, railroads for transportation, and ships which also gave a rise in agricultural productivity.
Minkema, Kenneth P., Stout, Harry S.. "The Edwardsean Tradition and the Antislavery Debate, 1740-1865." Journal of American History 1(2005):47. eLibrary. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.