· It was difficult to make a profit from cotton because cottonseeds were removed by hand.
Ex.) It took one person an entire day to clean one pound of cotton.
· Therefore, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793.
· Whitney applied for a patent on the cotton gin.
· People ignored the patent and built their own.
· Whitney never became wealthy from his invention.
· Plantation owners began to earn a lot of money growing cotton, causing:
- farmers to increase their dependency on slave labor.
- Native Americans to be forced onto reservations as farmers took their land. Ex.) Cherokees, Creek
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