Eli Whitney’s Invention of The Cotton Gin and Its Impact on America (Essay Example)

Cotton, the material that kept the United States in chains. After 1763, slavery had a drastic increase of seventy percent, this was caused by an innovation called the cotton gin, created by Eli Whitney in 1763. The cotton gin enabled a rapid separation of seeds from cotton fibers, which made the processing of this crop more efficient than it had been possible before. Historically, cotton had been cultivated in the United States and it was not an easy task due to the difficulty in obtaining its fibers. The cotton gin provided a revolutionary solution to that problem. This innovation brought about the greatest change in the U.S. because it increased the demand for slaves and it promoted the need for additional land to grow more and more cotton. 

One of the main reasons the cotton gin brought the greatest change to the United States is because it drove a drastic increase in slavery. Before the invention, slaves were being set free because there was not enough demand as the economy was transitioning to industries where slaves were not required in high numbers. This situation changed in the south after the cotton gin was invented, archives.gov states, “The most significant effect of the cotton gin, however, was the growth of slavery… it did not reduce the need for enslaved labor to grow and pick the cotton”. The efficiency of processing cotton increased so much that farmers in the south started planting and growing a lot of cotton. Another reason this invention brought the greatest change to the U.S. is that it promoted the demand for additional land to grow more cotton. This additional land had to be taken from Native American tribes that were the historical inhabitants of those territories, thoughtco.com states, “plantation owners constantly needed more land and labor of enslaved people to meet the increasing demand for the fiber”. The need for more land resulted in moving Native Americans to the Western Territories. Due to the invention of the cotton gin, approximately sixty thousand Native Americans were displaced. After all, the cotton gin had a lot of negative consequences for the American society of the 18th century and brought the greatest change to the U.S.

Contrary to the idea that the cotton gin brought the greatest change to the U.S., some people have argued that photography had the biggest impact. Many individuals point to the fact that photography allows people to take snapshots of life, as stated by cherishedimages.net, “Photography is important because we can document something and have it forever”. It is understandable how people agree it brought the greatest change because not only does photography allow us to capture our surroundings, but it also led to cinematography. In reality, the cotton gin had the biggest change in the United States because of the massive drive to a slavery increase. Cotton was a high-maintenance crop and needed a lot of manpower to support its growing, harvest and cultivation overall, constitutioncenter.org states, “cotton became a very profitable crop that also demanded a growing slave-labor force to harvest it”. This proves that the cotton gin brought the most immediate and broader change, to a large extent of the U.S. population. Therefore, even though photography brought great changes, the cotton gin was far more impactful.

In conclusion, beyond the cotton gins great properties, it mainly increased slavery and promoted demand for additional land. The cotton gin changed 18th century United States for many years to come, the changes in population dynamics and land needs led to the issues that resulted in the Civil War and many of those events still impact the U.S society today.