October 28: Cotton Engine
On 28 October 1793, American inventor Eli Whitney applied for a patent for the first modern cotton gin. The cotton gin–short for “Cotton Engine”–was a machine that pulled the fibers out of picked cotton, leaving just the cotton seeds. Cotton fibers were used to make clothing, flags, et cetera. Whitney’s machine was helpful because, without it, people would have to hand pick the seeds out of the cotton balls which was time consuming. Many people have invented such cotton machines, but none were as efficient and useful as Whitney’s.
This invention would eventually change America for the worse and play a role in the civil war. But before it did that, it boosted America’s slow economy. The cotton gin allowed the creation of many textile factories and shipping points to ship cotton products all over the world and of course across the country.
The negative would slowly build up in the South. The Southern states supplied two-thirds of the world’s cotton; allowing those states to have one cash crop and become richer. Cotton production expanded from 750,000 bales in 1830 to 2.85 million bales in 1850; while slave count rose in the south to 3.3 million by 1850.
All this led to the South rebelling in fear of losing the millions of slaves who were the driving force of their profits and the entire southern economy. That is why this cotton gin was a major cause in the factors that led to the Civil War, and an important part of world history as well as American history.
–Adam Rababeh
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Meet the Author: Adam Rababeh
I am 18 years old and this is my sophomore year at Schoolcraft College. I plan to transfer to Michigan State University by next fall in pursuit of a Bachelors and Masters degree in world politics; possibly even a Ph.D. My interests include politics, history, football, and soccer. I enjoy hanging out with friends and just enjoying life whenever I have time between work, school, and my family.
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Even though cotton was the leading export for America at the time, slavery became the key factor of tension between the North and South. The South political economy only relied on cotton and slavery. Do to the possible movement to the west for cotton; the North feared that the expansion would raise the rate of slavery. Tensions between the North and South, made the North fear that expanding west those new states would join the Union. The South states thought that slavery was a great way to produce the production and the North feared that the country would expand slavery through the whole nation.
After the Civil War during the 1930’s, the expansion for cotton moved into Texas and California. Even though this only lasted a short time, most cotton farmers left their farmers in the Northeast and moved back to the old cotton mills in the South. Even though the United States has the biggest importation of foreign textiles, but it is still interesting to see where the United States came to be with cotton farming.
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