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: -“Cotton is King” Whitney’s hand powered cotton gin could produce approximately 50 pounds of lint cotton a day. By the time of the Civil War, steam powered cotton gins were producing approximately 2, 500 pounds of lint cotton a day. Soon cotton became the South’s most important crop and the leading U.S. export.

Detailed explanation-4: -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-5: -After the cotton gin became available, cotton became the top cash crop in the South. Since the ease of producing cotton increased supply, the prices lowered and demand increased. Cotton manufacturing in the North increased and so did the demand for cotton.