Cotton Gin Effects

In the 1850s, Southern America produced approximately seventy percent of the world’s cotton. However, this production would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the invention of the Cotton Gin. Since he was little, Eli Whitney, developed a passion towards being an inventor. He frequently worked in his father’s workshop and there he would take things apart and would put them back together. At the age of 24, he enrolled in college in order to become a lawyer. It was not long after when he found himself in financial trouble. Due to this, he moved to Massachusetts to work as a private tutor. While he was there, he noticed the struggle that farmers would go through while dealing with the cotton. It was then when he knew that he wanted to invent
something useful and profitable to make the cotton industry easier for the farmers, Whitney then decided to invent the machine that influenced the history of the United States, the Cotton Gin.
The Cotton Gin was a not very complicated invention and its sole purpose was to separate the cotton from the seeds. With Eli Whitney’s invention, farmers were able to plant much more cotton to the point where the cotton production doubled between the years 1830 to 1850. Cotton became the number one money producer in Southern America thanks to the Cotton Gin. Since the cotton production kept increasing through the years, more land was needed to keep growing the crops, therefore, the Americans took the land from the Natives. The more field, the more working hands that were needed, and the slaves were the free labor needed to get the work done.
Eli Whitney not only resurrected the cotton industry with his brilliant invention but also brought with it some side effects.
More slaves were needed to keep producing cotton, which led to an increase in slavery. By 1860 one in three Southerners was a slave. Because of the cotton gin, slaves now were forced to work in a more regimented environment and cover larger plantations while working for long periods of time. The founding fathers thought that slavery was going to die eventually, but they were wrong. The Cotton Gin renewed slavery, leading the south to defend slavery. The North did not feel the same, as a result, the Civil War
happened.
If the Cotton Gin had not been invented by Eli Whitney the South would not have made as close as much money as they did.
Since cotton was the main production, it lead to a boom in cotton products in Southern America and the continuation of the cotton industry throughout the first half of the 19th century. Without the invention of the Cotton Gin, the farms would have remained small operations, the plantation culture would not have developed and slavery would have died in the early 19th century.
Lastly, the creation of the Cotton Gin was the main cause that led to the Civil War. The Civil War had such a remarkable impact on the United States that it would be almost impossible to imagine how different our country would be if it would not have happened. Also, the tremendous tension between state’s rights and the federal government would not be quite as extreme as it was in the mid-nineteen century. The South would have not begun to invest more in slaves, and there would not have been the striking disagreement between conservatism and liberalism as
nowadays.