9781422274217

industry in Europe and the northeastern states, cotton farmers needed to streamline the process of cleaning cotton so that they could meet the economic demand. In the 1790s, Eli Whitney developed the cotton gin, a device that could quickly and easily remove seeds from cotton fibers. The hand-cranked cotton gin could clean about fifty pounds of cotton in a single day. This made cotton much more profitable than rice and tobacco. Unlike food crops, cotton was also easy to store for a longer period of time. As a result of the new technology, Southern plantation owners who lived in cotton-growing areas increased the amount of land they devoted to growing cotton. While one might initially believe that Whitney’s cotton gin made the lives of slaves in the South easier, this is not the case. More land for cotton farming required more slaves to tend and

Slaves bring cotton to be processed in a hand-cranked cotton gin, while plantation owners tally the profits.

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SLAVE LIFE ON A SOUTHERN PLANTATION