US History

Science and Technology

Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)

Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)

African Americans

This collection uses primary sources to explore the invention of the cotton gin and its impact on cotton production and the expansion of slavery in the United States.

Teaching Guide: Exploring the Cotton Gin

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.

Resources

1. [The Cotton Gin](https://www.eliwhitney.org/7/museum/eli-whitney/cotton-gin), Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop. 
2. “[The cotton gin: A game-changing social and economic invention](https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-cotton-gin-a-game-changing-social-and-economic-invention),” National Constitution Center, March 14, 2017. 
3. [Cotton Gins](http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/cotton-gins), New Georgia Encyclopedia. 
4. [The Cotton Revolution](http://www.americanyawp.com/text/11-the-cotton-revolution/), *The American Yawp*. 
5. “[When Cotton Was King](https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/when-cotton-was-king/),” *The New York Times*, March 26, 2011.

Overview

In 1792, recent college graduate Eli Whitney moved to Georgia to work as a tutor on a plantation. There, Whitney learned that southern planters were eager to make cotton a profitable crop. Once cotton was picked from the field, seeds had to be removed from the cotton fiber by hand before cotton could be sold. This process was labor-intensive and time-consuming, and it limited the amount of cotton that planters, relying on the work of enslaved people, could produce. 

In 1793, Whitney invented and submitted a patent for the cotton gin—a machine that used rotating brushes and teeth to remove seeds from cotton fiber. His invention revolutionized cotton production, although Whitney faced challenges enforcing his patent and saw little profit from it. While an enslaved person needed about ten hours to separate the seeds from one pound of cotton fiber by hand, two people using the cotton gin could produce about fifty pounds of cotton in the same timeframe. 

The invention of the cotton gin forever altered the economy, geography, and politics of the United States. The cotton gin made cotton tremendously profitable, which encouraged westward migration to new areas of the US South to grow more cotton. The number of enslaved people rose with the increase in cotton production, from 700,000 in 1790 to over three million by 1850. By mid-century, the southern states were responsible for seventy-five percent of the world's cotton, most of which was shipped to New England or England, where it was made into cloth. Whitney’s cotton gin and its descendants helped the southern states become a major agricultural force in the world economy on the backs of a growing enslaved population. 

After the Civil War, cotton production boomed, as many newly emancipated African Americans continued to work in cotton fields as sharecroppers—tenants who rented land from farmers in return for a share of the crops harvested from that land. In the sharecropping system, landowners often cheated tenants using financial deception reinforced by racial violence to keep sharecroppers working to pay off endless debt. By the 1950s, mechanized cotton pickers had largely replaced manual cotton picking, but modern versions of the cotton gin are still in use today.

English

Cotton Gin and the Expansion of Slavery

cotton-gin_12_89f4abb49a39e2040e928aecc46315af.jpg

Courtesy of National Museum of African American History and Culture via Smithsonian Institution.

“Carte-de-visite of women and children in a cotton field,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/89f4abb49a39e2040e928aecc46315af.

In this carte-de-visite photograph, very young children stand alongside adults in a cotton field. Because the photograph is from the 1860s, it is unclear whether it was captured before or after emancipation. Workers in this photograph could be enslaved or sharecroppers, both of whom picked cotton in fields on large plantations.

A photograph of African American women and children in a cotton field, 1860s.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 12 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Cotton Gin and the Expansion of Slavery