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Primary Source Sets
Cotton Gin and the Expansion of Slavery
A reproduction of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin model, patented in 1794.

A reproduction of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin model, patented in 1794.

Inventor Eli Whitney developed this model for the cotton gin and applied for a patent in 1793, though others quickly pirated his invention. Whitney’s cotton gin used rotating brushes and teeth to remove the seeds from cotton. Southern plantation owners depended on enslaved people to cultivate and harvest labor-intensive crops such as rice, sugar, tobacco, and especially cotton. As the market demand for cotton increased in the early 1800s and the cotton gin made cotton processing faster and easier, the Southern cotton industry expanded dramatically, as did the system of slave labor on which it relied.

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Citation Information
“Reproduction of Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin Model,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/84f0ff53a04e2536d1f59de01fabb2b6.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center via Smithsonian Institution.

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For this source, consider:

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Item 2 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Cotton Gin and the Expansion of Slavery

Previous ItemNext Item
A photograph of a cotton plant in bloom.
A reproduction of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin model, patented in 1794.
A contract between Eli Whitney and the State of Tennessee for use of the cotton gin, 1807.
A petition by Eli Whitney to the US Congress requesting renewal of his cotton gin patent, 1812.
An excerpt from an 1898 book about cotton that details the invention of the saw gin and the ginning and baling processes.
An 1868 advertisement from the Albany Cotton Gin Manufacturing Company for the Star Cotton Gin and Condenser.
A map of US cotton production in 1880 with charts showing figures for the import and export of cotton from 1821 to 1880.
A map of the agricultural regions of the United States, showing changes in cotton production between 1839 and 1924.
A map showing the distribution of the population of enslaved people in the United States, 1861.
A broadside advertising an auction of forty-four enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, 1859-1860.
An illustration of enslaved people laboring on a cotton plantation, 1859.
A photograph of African American women and children in a cotton field, 1860s.
A stereo card depicting African American women and children picking cotton in a field.
A stereo card of an African American worker beside a cotton gin.
A Harper’s Weekly illustration of enslaved people operating an early cotton gin, 1869.

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