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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. [12] Cotton was a staple that could be stored for long periods and shipped long distances, unlike most agricultural products.
Economic modernization proceeded rapidly, thanks to highly profitable cotton crops in the South, new textile and machine-making industries in the Northeast, and a fast developing transportation infrastructure. Breaking loose from European models, the Americans developed their own high culture, notably in literature and in higher education.
Eli Whitney Jr. invents the cotton gin, making possible the profitable large-scale production of short-staple cotton in the South. The demand for slave labor increases with the resulting increase in cotton production. [44] 1794: In the Slave Trade Act of 1794 Congress prohibits ships from engaging in the international slave trade. [45]
These seeds are either used again to grow more cotton or, if badly damaged, disposed of. The cotton gin uses a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through the screen, while brushes continuously remove the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and later received a patent ...
As industrial technologies including the cotton gin made slavery even more profitable, Southern states refused to ban slavery- perpetuating the division of the United States between free and slave states. Tensions escalated as the United States expanded west ward (also retroactively causing the Southeast region to also expand to the west.
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]
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 became more prevalent in the southern United States. [7]
The 1787 Beverly Cotton Manufactory was the first cotton mill in the United States, but it relied on horse power. Samuel Slater , an apprentice in one of the largest textile factories in England, immigrated to the United States in 1789 upon learning that American states were paying bounties to British expatriates with a knowledge of textile ...