Cotton Gin Research Paper

What made cotton so enticing? Before cotton, tobacco, rice, and indigo were America's oldest cash crops. The textile industry began to increase, and the demand for cotton clothing exploded. Cotton became known as “King Cotton” because it made up half of American exports and the South produced more than half the world’s supply of cotton. Therefore, Eli Whitney invented a process to easily separate cotton fiber from its seeds which impacted the nation economically, politically, and socially. Thus, cotton was cheaper and more plentiful. Primarily, the cotton gin shaped the nation’s economy in various ways. The southern economy depended on the growth of cotton. This labor-intensive crop demanded a large labor force, filled by the enslavement …show more content…
As a result of the cotton gin, the nation’s leaders predicted that slavery could not coexist with democratic principles and therefore die. A fight for slavery was too much for the nation to withstand. James Madison states, “Great as the evil [slavery] is, a dismemberment of the union would be worse.” In other words, the end of slavery was not as crucial as the colonies being whole and gaining our independence from Great Britain. The south elite feared that the new states entering the union would come in as a free state instead of a slave state. Slaves fueled the cotton gin and without them, there is no labor source. The North felt it was unfair that the South had so many slaves because they would have more votes and representation in the House. Therefore, delegates at the Constitutional Convention issued the three-fifths compromise which stated that for every five slaves they would count as three votes. Since cotton was the money maker, the North put high tariffs on cotton and cotton goods which the South perceived to protect the Northern manufacturers. The strain between the North and South threatened the institution of slavery. Slave states began to tighten slave laws and moved to prohibit emancipation. Unfortunately, Abraham Lincoln was elected president. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared all slaves in southern states free which was intended to cripple the south. His plan to untie the North and South again resulted in the Civil War. All in all, the nation was affected in a political

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