USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The most significant effect of the cotton gin, however, was the growth of slavery. While it was true that the cotton gin reduced the labor of removing seeds, it did not reduce the need for enslaved labor to grow and pick the cotton. In fact, the opposite occurred.

Detailed explanation-2: -The gin improved the separation of the seeds and fibers but the cotton still needed to be picked by hand. The demand for cotton roughly doubled each decade following Whitney’s invention. So cotton became a very profitable crop that also demanded a growing slave-labor force to harvest it.

Detailed explanation-3: -The cotton gin dramatically reduced the amount of time and labor required to clean cotton of its seeds. It also allowed different types of cotton to be grown (harder to clean varieties of cotton had not been grown) this expanded the geographic areas in which cotton could be grown (into many different Southern states).

Detailed explanation-4: -Eli Whitney’s cotton gin led to an increase in demand for slaves and plantations, which led to Southern plantation owners investing in human resources (slaves) instead of capital resources (factories).