USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The most significant effect of the cotton gin, however, was the growth of slavery.

Detailed explanation-2: -The cotton gin is an example of an invention directly called forth by an immediate demand; the mechanization of spinning in England had created a greatly expanded market for American cotton, whose production was inhibited by the slowness of manual removal of the seeds from the raw fibre.

Detailed explanation-3: -With the invention of the cotton gin, cotton became the cash crop of the Deep South, stimulating increased demand for enslaved people from the Upper South to toil the land.

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).

Detailed explanation-5: -Still, the cotton gin had transformed the American economy. For the South, it meant that cotton could be produced plentifully and cheaply for domestic use and for export, and by the mid-19th century, cotton was America’s leading export.