today we're looking at the cotton gin
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for additional resources that go with these videos in the late 1700s to early 1800s the institution
of slavery was on the decline by 1804 all northern states had abolished slavery within their states
in the south where year-round agriculture was the primary economic activity slavery was still
present but even there it was getting tougher and tougher for plantation owners to turn a profit
many southern planters were growing rice indigo tobacco and cotton all of which were not extremely
profitable the problem with cotton was the amount of labor required to separate the seeds of the
cotton bloom from the cotton itself one enslaved person could spend eight hours to separate two
pounds of cotton from the seeds in the early 1790s american inventor eli whitney visited
mulberry grove plantation in eastern georgia that belonged to catherine littlefield greene
who was the widow of revolutionary war general nathaniel greene while there green expressed to
whitney the difficulty of separating the cotton seeds from the blooms whitney began to develop
a solution and what he came up with was the cotton gin gin was short for engine whitney applied for a
patent which a patent is a right right given to an inventor by the government that allows them
to be the only person or company that produces that product for a period of at least 20 years
but whitney applied for a patent in october of 1793 and the patent was granted in march of 1794.
how the cotton gin worked was a person would crank a handle that spun two wooden cylinders
one cylinder was surrounded by rows of little metal spikes which pulled the cotton lint through
like almost like a comb which had very close teeth that would not allow the seeds to go
through the second spinning cylinder had brushes that would grab the clean lint and pull it off
the first wheel with the cotton gin now instead of being able to produce two pounds of usable cotton
separated from the seed per day by hand now you could produce 50 pounds of cotton in a single day
this massive increase in the ability to produce cotton caused a boom in the cotton industry
as now growing cotton was an almost guaranteed profit for planters southern planters became
among the richest people in the country as they grew more and more cotton port cities
across the south such as mobile alabama new orleans louisiana and charleston south carolina
became major shipping hubs in 1830 the south produced 750 000 bales of cotton and then
barely 20 years later that number increased to 2.8 million bales of cotton much of this cotton
was being shipped to europe where the industrial revolution had already hit and there were textile
mills producing thousands of yards of cloth but likewise much of the cotton was making its way
to cities in the northeastern part of the united states where factories were popping up everywhere
the cotton bean produced in the south was feeding the industrialization taking place in the north
unfortunately with the increase in the production of cotton came an increase in the demand for slave
labor to produce plant harvest and process the cotton before it could be sent to factories to
be turned into cloth estimates are that there was approximately 700 000 enslaved people in the south
at the time when whitney invented the cotton gin that number increased to right at 4 million
enslaved people by 1860 just before the american civil war just as the cotton gin had made port
cities in the south into cotton exporting hubs the increase in the demand for slave labor made cities
such as new orleans louisiana into centers for the trading and selling of human beings
the institution of slavery which had looked as if it might be on its way to extinction in the
late 1700s was given new life by the invention of the cotton gin interestingly whitney did not
become enormously wealthy with his invention of the cotton gin many other manufacturers
copied it and so whitney became more profitable with his promotion of interchangeable parts for
items such as guns so whitney began to work in large-scale production of weapons which is
weapons manufacturing actually didn't become very profitable until after his death in 1825.
the invention of the cotton gin was an amazing step forward for the manufacturing of goods
but had terrible consequences as it contributed heavily to the growth of the institution of
slavery and the enslavement of millions which would then contribute to the outbreak of the
american civil war so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching