cotton: Effect of the Cotton Gin

The invention (1793) of the cotton gin, a machine for separating seeds from fiber, and the mechanization of textile production in the Industrial Revolution enabled cotton to supersede flax and wool textiles. Cotton has played a significant role in history. Britain's need for imported cotton fiber encouraged its accession to the Monroe Doctrine; Britain's need for vast African and Indian markets for its cotton manufactures influenced its role as an imperial sea power. Beginning in North America in the Jamestown colony (1607), cotton cultivation became the basis of the one-crop, slave-labor economy of the Deep South and a principal economic cause of the Civil War. The end of slavery and the exhaustion of the soil pushed the Cotton Belt to the west. The demand for and production of cotton in the 19th cent. also provided impetus for the development of global capitalism.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Cotton Production Today
• Effect of the Cotton Gin
• Early History
• Uses of Cotton
• Planting and Production
• The Cotton Plant
• Bibliography

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