Who Invented The Cotton Gin

If you were enslaved, and was told to pick cotton with your bare hands. And return home with blistered fingers from a long day, from working in the fields. What would make your life any easier? Back then, slaves were forced to work out in the field for the entire day, picking for cotton. But in the end, it would take an entire day to remove seeds from at least a pound of cotton. Then on the 14 of March, 1794, that all changed when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. This invention sped up the process of removing the seeds from cotton fiber. Now with Whitney’s new invention, a slave could produce fifty pounds of cotton each day. Now that's a big difference! Thanks to this the United States was able to profit from cotton. ⅔ of the world's supply of cotton is produced from the American South.

But how did such invention come to be? In 1792, Whitney had accepted an invitation to stay at Catherine Greene’s plantation. There he learned about cotton production and the difficulty cotton farmers or slaves faced. Greene and her plantation manager, Phineas Miller, explained the problem with short-staple cotton to Whitney. This sparked the idea to create a more efficient way to remove the seeds from cotton plants.

The cotton gin had …show more content…
How before there was a cotton gin, slaves were put to the task of removing seeds all day, at least a pound of cotton would take all day. And how this struggle would cause them to return home with painful, blistered fingers. How we should thank Eli Whitney for this remarkable invention. Now slaves don't have to struggle, now they could just use the cotton gin. The cotton gin had helped speed up the process of removing seeds from cotton. Let us not forget that a slave could produce fifty pounds of cotton each day, thanks to the cotton gin. The United States was able to profit from cotton. Let us not forget that ⅔ of the world’s supply of cotton was produced from the American