Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin

Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin

Why?

After realizing that Whitney needed to pay for his school debts, he moved to Massachusetts and worked on a farm as a private tutor. He noticed that the planters needed a way to make cotton growing more profitable. Cotton was a staple crop, however it was very hard to separate the pieces. So Whitney was determined to find a solution to their problem.Eli Whitney created the Cotton Gin with the hopes of allowing greater productivity and profit in the cotton industry. There were two versions of the Cotton Gin, the small one was to be hand-cranked and the larger one would be driven by water power or cattle driven.After the Cotton Gin, the demand for cotton doubled. The inventions of the machines to spin and weave cotton and the steamboat, only made the demand even more striking. Eli Whitney created the cotton gin to reduce the labor of removing seeds, however it caused an increase in slaves to grow and pick the cotton. Many planters also wanted more land and slaves to keep up in the demand of cotton across the world. Midcentury America was growing three-quarters of the worlds cotton at that point. Much of it was sent to European countries.

What is the Cotton Gin?

Effects of the Cotton Gin