In 1793, American inventor Eli Whitney (1765–1825) invented a machine that made harvesting cotton much easier. His cotton gin enabled
a laborer to separate a lot of cotton from the seeds with little effort. A laborer working by hand could once expect to produce only one pound of
cleaned cotton per day. With the help of a cotton gin, fifty pounds could
be cleaned in a day.
Whitney did not invent the very first machine to separate cotton
from its seeds. The machine that existed at that time, however, did not
work on all types of cotton. It crushed the seeds of the green-seeded cotton that grew easily throughout the South, staining the product. Blackseeded cotton, which was easy to clean, only grew in the southern coastal
areas. As a result, the South’s production of cotton was limited by the inability to easily clean the cotton that grew best inland from the coast.
New processes for making cloth created a growing demand for cotton, including in Europe. Knowing that a machine capable of processing
the green-seeded cotton could help growers meet that demand, Whitney
turned his focus to making one. Within a few months, he had perfected
a design. He obtained a patent in 1794, though he would benefit very
little from the rights. Many imitations of his design arose throughout the
South, and Whitney had little success protecting the patent in court.
The effect of Whitney’s cotton gin was vast and unforgettable.
Cotton quickly became the dominant crop in the South. Its entire economy was revitalized as green-seed cotton became a profitable crop. The
United States became a powerful global force as the crop grew. Southern
exports of cotton filled more than half of the world’s demands.
The downside to the cotton boom was the effect it had on prolonging slavery in the United States. The crop demanded constant attention,
and the large fields required many laborers. While Northern states moved
toward emancipation at the end of the eighteenth century, the cotton
boom cemented the South to slavery in a way that other crops did not.