Eli Whitney's 1793 machine for tearing cotton fiber from its seeds, work that had taken a person a day per pound. The gin made short-staple upland cotton profitable across the American South, and with it the plantation system and the expansion of slavery, the starkest case in this atlas of an implement remaking a society for the worse as well as the richer. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Introduced Year OriginRoller gins for long-staple cotton are ancient in India; Whitney's saw gin of 1793 handled short-staple upland cotton 1 Classification
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Source Cotton Gin (Wikipedia)
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1. Cotton Gin (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationlead description or Wikipedia lead (power-source)Quote, lead description or Wikipedia lead (power-source)
Handheld roller gins had been used in the Indian subcontinent since around 500 A.D.
Eli Whitney (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationCotton gin sectionQuote, Cotton gin section
Whitney's invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States and prolonged the institution.
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