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Much of what we wear, eat, read and use to stay healthy comes from cotton. Even its byproducts are useful as fodder for cattle, material for felt hats, production of paper products, oil for food preparations, medicine and soap. Cotton is important worldwide (Parkman 79-82). This paper traces Eli Whitney's efforts to improve the processing of raw cotton by inventing and perfecting his cotton gin. Topics included are his early background, how he came to invent the cotton gin, disputes about patent rights, the global impact of the cotton gin, Whitney's contributions to mass production methods and his lasting legacy.
Eli Whitney's Background Eli Whitney was born in Westborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts, 8 December 1765. From an early age, he liked to work with his hands. At twelve, he made and repaired violins and had a prosperous nail production business when he was a young teenager during the American Revolution when nails from England were unavailable. He became a young entrepreneur producing long pins for ladies bonnets and walking sticks for gentlemen. He expressed interest in attending Yale, but his step mother made it clear the family would provide no financial help. For four years, Whitney, then 19, read books on his own, worked any jobs he could find and saved his money. Despite a
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The teeth from several circular saws placed closely together grabbed the cotton as it was fed into the machine. Cotton moved through a grating or screen that quickly and easily caught the cotton fibers and removed the seeds (Abrams). A brush moving in the opposite direction cleared lint from the teeth, preparing the machine for another batch of cotton to be processed. This simple device saved many hand-labor hours. A request for a new birdcage sparked Whitney's imagination: he would use strong but thin wire in his cotton gin and add a brush roller to remove lint from the wire
Therefore, the South argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have a profound impact as slavery served as the backbone of the southern economy. Slavery was an integral part of the South’s way of life that they did not want to relinquish. In fact, Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin transformed the South and made slavery even more important. Therefore, in an effort to convince the other states to secede, Southern commissioners traveled to the states to give speeches in which they would use emotion in order to gain support from the states. First, Southern commissioners feared racial equality and claimed that “our fathers made this a government for the white man.” (604) Secondly, the commissioners feared that the Northern Republicans would infiltrate the South “to excite the slave to cut the throat of his master.” (605) Lastly, the commissioners feared interracial amalgamation and matrimony. According to Dew, “whites forced to endure racial equality, race war, a staining of the blood-who could tolerate such things?” (605) Therefore, Dew successfully proves that the founding documents showed that the South seceded over
Farming is an exceptionally significant part of the world, the U.S., and especially my little county, Gates County. Eli Whitney was someone who greatly aided the period of the Industrial Revolution and even now, the cotton in our pillows and shirts comes from somewhere, right? From his life before fame to his invention to the effect that it had on the world.
Eli Whitney was the inventor of the cotton gin and a pioneer in the mass production of cotton. Whitney was born in Westboro , Massachusetts., on Dec. 8, 1765, and died on Jan. 8, 1825. He graduated from Yale College in 1792. By April 1793, Whitney had designed and constructed the cotton gin, a machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber.
Thompson, Jennifer. Cotton, Ronald. “Picking Cotton.” Ferris State University. Williams Auditorium, Big Rapids, MI. 15 April 2014. Guest Lecture.
America’s economies and regions were becoming more connected than ever, which also contributed to a resulting better economy. However, the dependence on agriculture and slavery in the South resulted in further sectionalism and isolating ties to England. Though the connection between the Midwest and the North was strong due to numerous railroads, canals, and paved roads, the South was not as included in the new Market Revolution that was taking place. In addition to this, the South barely traded with any of the other regions. In fact, the South exported most of its cotton to England, and imported foreign goods more than any other region. Only connected to England, the South cut off a substantial amount of ties with its American sister regions. Slavery also contributed to the economy of the South. The only region that relied on slaves, the South was the minority when it came to favoring the peculiar institution. The invention of Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin revived the need for slavery in the South which made the picking and production of cotton faster and more profitable that it was before. In the South, “Cotton was King,” and because of this, the
The south, which was mostly agricultural, depended on the production of cotton. It was very important to their economy. Before Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin was used throughout the south, the United States produced about 750,000 bales of hay in 1830 (How the Cotton Gin). By 1850 it had increased to 2.85 billion bales of hay (How the Cotton Gin). Most of this was in the south because it had the weather conditions needed for cotton to grow. In 1793 Whitney saw the difficulty of taking out cotton seeds by hand (Cefrey 10-11). He decided to create a machine that could clean cotton faster than a human could. The Cotton Gin made the processing of cotton much faster and quicker. As a result of this, land owners were now able to have large cotton plantations across the south (How the Cotton Gin). Southerners were becoming wealthy very fast because of the cotton gin. Eli Whitney’s invention of the Cotton Gin made cotton the South’s main crop making more slave labor needed and political tensions rise.
Secondly, the demand for cotton grew tremendously as cotton became an important raw material for the then developing cotton industries in the North and Britain. The growing of cotton revived the Southern economy and the plantations spread across the south, and by 1850 the southern U.S produced more than 80% of cotton all over the world. As this cotton based economy of the south grew so did the slave labor to work in these large scale plantations since they were more labor-intensive...
This invention caused so many people pain, and suffering all because of Eli Whitney. “Slavery spread from the seaboard to some of the new western territories and states.” This shows that the amount of people whose greed was beyond that of normal had grown. In other words an unimaginable amount of greed had grown because of the invention. Same as the amount of people who wanted slaves to get money, and the amount of people who became slaves. His invention caused many to be dragged into a life of misery, and some never got to get their life some died in their horrible new life's. This shows that because of one invention the lives of many were completely ruined more people, innocent people, were taken from their homes forced into doing work abused
Because of this invention, slaves no longer had to hand pick the seeds from the cotton. And because the slaves no longer took such a big chunk of time out of their working days to pick out cotton seeds. Farmers could now plant more cotton because their slaves could get more cotton done, leaving more time to plant more cotton. This also helped the farmers because they could earn more money selling more amounts of cotton. Now, they wouldn’t have to wait all day to get a little bit of cotton produced with no seeds in it. It also helped the slaves save more time from a grueling task.
In the book, The Came Before Columbus by Ivan van Sertina, it was stated "The American cotton has an African ancestor" which explained how people traveled to survive based on cotton. This statement is the exact example why the study of plants is necessary, in reference to cotton. Is is important to know the plants origin to understand they type of environment the need to thrive in, and how the plant functions can help humans use the plant. Plants help with almost everything, we use them for our food, medicine, and cosmetics. As scientist are learning more about plants, the world can thrive more with the help of plants since some are essential to
Eli Whitney was born on December 8, 1765 in Westboro, Massachusetts. The tall, heavy-shouldered boy worked as a blacksmith. He had an almost natural understanding of mechanisms. On a machine made at home, he made nails, and at one time he was the only maker of ladies' hatpins in the country.
In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. It was designed with such small slots that when cotton was pushed through, the seeds were left behind. This created a demand for even more slaves in the South, as they now needed them to plant, cultivate, pick, and ‘gin’ the cotton. It seemed most obvious to get more African Americans.
“My father and mother strengthen me, and this was my first impression of life saying in my presence, I was intended for some great purpose (Nat turner, Brainyqoute.com)”. From the very beginning Nat Turner knew that he was meant to do something great. On the day of October 2, 1800 the famous Nat turner was born to Nancy Turner his father an unknown slave. Turner grew up with the thought that his father was an escaped slave and was coming back when he got the money to retrieve him and his mother. Nat turner grew up and lived his life in Southampton County, Virginia. The place was predominantly African- American but it didn’t stop the use of slavery in the county.
The invention of the cotton gin made growing cotton practical, and cotton began dominating the growing fields. Cotton was a crop that could be grown almost anywhere because it seemed to need only the land to grow in. Land that was once left empty because of poor growth capabilities was planted in the lucrative crop of cotton. Growing cotton allowed farmers to grow crops in fields that previously had to rest for a season. The southern farmers were able to realize a profit thanks to Eli’s labor and time saving machine.
Cotton had first become popular in England mainly because it was cooler and more comfortable than wool, plus it could be dyed in many colors and patterns. However, English manufacturers had to battle the Indian cotton textiles, which were much cheaper. Therefore, the British government enacted protectionist tariff and barriers against Indian cotton that allowed the infant British textile industry to grow and nourish. The United States did the same thing to grow its own textile industry in the northeastern part of the country. The U.S. government enacted tariffs to protect its infant industry against British textile imports, the textile industry sparked the Industrial Revolution in the U.S..