Prior to 1793 the production of green seed cotton in the American South was a tedious and time consuming process. WIth the invention of Eli Whitney's new cotton "gin", growers now had a far more efficient way of producing cotton. This new found efficiency spread through the south, and cotton almost instantly overtook rice and tobacco as the primary cash crop. This lead the cotton industry not only in the USA, but also Europe to boom. The new efficiency, however, did not make the situations for the millions of slaves any better. It took the civil war to free the slaves, and ironically, the South's cotton production more than doubled after this point. The American South solidified itself as Britain's primary producer, and would eventually surpass it as the "largest manufacturer of cotton cloth in the world." Eli Whitney's invention helped the American export economy and made cotton readily available to all.
How did Eli Whitney's invention change the economy of the American South?
How was American cotton production linked to the booming of industrial flash cities of England, such as Manchester?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment