How Did the Cotton Gin Shape Georgia's Economy?
Cotton has always played an important role in both the history and economy of Georgia. By 1820, Georgia was the world's leading producer of cotton. On the eve of the Civil War in 1861, cotton exports from the southern United States were twice that of the rest of the world. Cotton was indeed "king." But that had not always been the case.
In 1790, the only profitable cotton grown in the United States was the long-staple variety grown on the Sea Islands off the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. Sea Island cotton produced a long, strong fiber that was easily separated from the seed. But Sea Island cotton could only be grown along the coast. Short-staple cotton grew inland, but its fibers covered the entire seed,making it difficult to separate. Short-staple cotton could only be separated by hand, which was slow and inefficient.
Most Georgians at the beginning of the nineteenth century lived in or near the cities of Savannah and Augusta, along the Savannah River. With populations growing, farmers began moving westward, drawn to the rich soil of interior Georgia. However, cotton was still too labor-intensive to be profitable. With Georgia's tobacco industry in decline, a new technology was desperately needed for short staple cotton to flourish.
The new technology came from an unlikely source. Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts in 1765. His father was a farmer with a small manufacturing business on the side. In this shop, Eli learned mechanics. By age 14, he ran a profitable nail-manufacturing business.
In 1793, ten years after the Revolutionary War, Whitney left the North and set sail to work as a tutor on a plantation in South Carolina. There, he saw cotton growing for the first time and devoted himself to finding a way to gin the fibers. In a letter to his father, he wrote that "if a machine could be invented which would clean the cotton with expedition, it would be a great thing both to the country and the inventor."
Whitney's cotton gin was simple. Wire hooks attached to a cylinder pulled cotton through a mesh screen. Because the seeds could not pass through the filter, the fibers were easily separated. His device allowed a person to "clean" fifty pounds of cotton per day rather than just one pound. Growing cotton was still labor-intensive, but the labor shifted from ginning to growing and picking cotton.
Eli Whitney never made much money from his cotton gin. Its simple design made it easy to copy. Between 1794 and 1803, nine patents for improvements to the gin were granted to people other than Whitney. In 1812, Whitney's own application for renewal of his cotton gin patent was denied by the US government.
Throughout history, inventions and new technologies have changed the way humans live. Perhaps no other development affected life in the United States more than the cotton gin. Its impact was far-reaching. This assignment asks you to examine the economic effects of the cotton gin and answer the question, How did the cotton gin shape Georgia s economy?
