ANlwNATION
EliWhitneyandthecottongin
In 1793 a youngschool teachernamedEliWh i(llcy
was visiting frien ds in the southern state of
Ceorgia.LikeotherstatesintheSouth.Ccorgia's
maincropwascotton.Georgia'splantersexpo rted
th eircottonto spinn ingmills in Engla nd .How-
ever,the millscouldnoruscGeorgia' scotton unt il
its growersremovedthe m an yseed sth at were
tangled amongits fibers. T hiswas a slowand
difticultjobthatwasdonebyhand.Until a\....ay
couldbefoundto doitmoreq u ickly. theam ou n t
ofcottonthat planters grewwas limited tothe
amount thattheirworkers could pick the seeds
from.
EliWhitneyhad a talentformakingmachine s. He
solved the plante rs"problem by inventi n g the
cotton"engine"-cor"gin"forshort.This wasa
m achine thatquicklyseparatedtheseeds an dthe
fibero ftherawcotton.Using\Vhimcy'sg ill,one
workercouldremovetheseedsfro mmorethan
fourhundredpoundsofcottoninth e sam etimethatit hadtakenpreviouslytoremovethemfro m
twopoun ds.
Whitn q " sinventionmadepossible ahugeinc rease
ill the amount of cotton grown by southern
plan ter s. By the year 1820 the outputoftheir
plan tations and farms waseighttho usand times
hig herth an in 1791.Theincreasewasachievedby
b ringin ginmoreslavestoplo u gh andhoetheland
andpick the cotton.T heprosperityofthe planters
cam eto dependmoreeveryyearon slaverybein g
allowedto continue.
This fact.moreperhaps than allYothe r,ex pla ins
w h ysoutherne rsbrokeawayfro mtherest of the
U nitedStates.T heydidso inorderto trytosave
slaver y- th eir"peculiarinst itu tio n "astheycalled
it-and withit theirprosperityandwayoflife.EliWhiwry'sfortollgill.46