Article: King Cotton

KING COTTON


Until the 1790s growers were limited to producing the quantity of cotton that could be processed by slaves. Separating the seeds from cotton was time consuming and labor intensive. The bolls (cottonseed pods) were dried in front of a fire, and the seeds were picked out by hand. In 1793 American inventor Eli Whitney (1765 1825) introduced the cotton gin. A revolutionary laborsaving machine, it could clean 50 times more cotton fiber in one day than a human. Though Whitney patented the machine in 1794, imitations were quickly put into production by shrewd businessmen who realized the impact the gin could have on the nation's cotton industry. Just before Whitney ...

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