Overall, the slave population in the South grew from 700,000 before Whitney’s patent to more than three million in 1850—striking evidence of the changing Southern economy and its growing dependence on the slave system to keep the economy running. Cotton cultivation proved especially well-suited to slave labor.

The cotton gin lead to the spread of slavery because, before the invention, cotton could only be produced in certain regions because machines could only handle those certain types. With the vast increase of new plantations, the demand for slaves grew so the plantations could be filled with laborers.

Answer Expert Verified The cotton gin allowed quick efficiency with processing cotton. The seed removal process was made quicker and this allowed slaves to pick more cotton. More slaves would mean more cotton to be picked and more of it to be processed which would increase revenue.

Within 10 years after the cotton gin was put into use, the value of the total United States crop leaped from $150,000 to more than $8 million. This success of this plantation crop made it much more difficult for slaves to purchase their freedom or obtain it through the good will of their masters.

The gin improved the separation of the seeds and fibers but the cotton still needed to be picked by hand. The demand for cotton roughly doubled each decade following Whitney’s invention. So cotton became a very profitable crop that also demanded a growing slave-labor force to harvest it.

Since hand labor is no longer used in the U.S. to harvest cotton, the crop is harvested by machines, either a picker or a stripper. Cotton picking machines have spindles that pick (twist) the seed cotton from the burrs that are attached to plants’ stems.

Picking Efficiency Losses Spindle pickers are capable of harvesting 95-98% of the cotton produced, but some producers experience field harvest loss approaching 20%.

Cotton has been grown for food, fiber, and even fuel for over 6,000 years. You can find cotton in your clothes, sheets, and towels, but cotton is also used to make things like rope, U.S. currency, paper, cooking oil, animal feed, packaging, and biofuels.

1960s

John Daniel Rust

Cotton accounted for over half of all American exports during the first half of the 19th century. The cotton market supported America’s ability to borrow money from abroad. It also fostered an enormous domestic trade in agricultural products from the West and manufactured goods from the East.

Cotton is grown in warm climates. Tropical and subtropical regions of the world like India, Egypt, Southern United States, Uzbekistan, and China are producing most of the cotton. The cotton plant is grown from seeds and we get fabric from its flower. The plant produces balls of fluffy white fibers known as ‘lint’.

The cotton balls can cause a blockage in your intestines that can cause pain and can potentially lead to a stay in the hospital if the blockage is severe. Besides the fact that eating cotton balls can be dangerous, there is no nutritional value to them.

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Leading cotton producing countries worldwide in 2019/2020 (in 1,000 metric tons)

American Upland is the most widely used cotton and can be short- to long-staple (“staple” refers to the length of the individual fibers). If a label only says “100 percent cotton,” it is likely to be American Upland. Pima is a fine, long-staple cotton that yields a very soft weave.