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The invention of the cotton gin led to increased demands for slave labor in the American South, reversing the economic decline that had occurred in the region during the late 18th century. [38] The cotton gin thus "transformed cotton as a crop and the American South into the globe's first agricultural powerhouse". [39]
The cotton gin transformed Southern agriculture and the national economy. [11] Southern cotton found ready markets in Europe and in the burgeoning textile mills of New England. Cotton exports from the U.S. boomed after the cotton gin's appearance – from less than 500,000 pounds (230,000 kg) in 1793 to 93 million pounds (42,000,000 kg) by 1810 ...
The institution of slavery only became especially prominent in the area following two major events: the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793, and the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. These events led to the westward migration of slave-owning American settlers into the area of present Missouri and Arkansas , then known as Upper Louisiana .
In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and later received a patent on March 14, 1794. [31] Whitney's cotton gin could have possibly ignited a revolution in the cotton industry and the rise of "King Cotton" as the main cash crop in the South. However, it never made him rich.
English: African Americans slaves using the First cotton-gin, 1790-1800, drawn by William L. Sheppard. Illustration in Harper's weekly, 1869 Dec. 18, p. 813. Harpers Weekly's illustration depicting event of some 70 years earlier. The illustration is of a Roller Cotton Gin and not an illustration of a Whitney Spike Gin or Holmes Saw Gin.
It was built by Benjamin Franklin Prater in 1855. The water-powered mill was originally fitted with the latest in grain cleaning, grinding and sifting machinery, all powered by the Coahulla Creek. As the mill's popularity grew, Prater added a cotton gin, a saw mill, a wool carder, a syrup mill, a general store, and a blacksmiths shop.
Suddenly, cotton could be processed more cheaply and efficiently, resulting in slavery becoming very profitable and a large plantation system developing to support the expanding industry. In the 15 years between the invention of the cotton gin and the passage of the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves , the slave trade increased and slavery ...
As cotton-producing estates grew in size, so did the number of slaveholders and the average number of enslaved people held. [42] [41] A cotton plantation normally had a cotton gin house, where the cotton gin was used to remove the seeds from raw cotton. After ginning, the cotton had to be baled before it could be warehoused and