What was “king cotton”?
When in 1793 American inventor Eli Whitney (1765–1825) developed the cotton gin, a machine that separates raw cotton fibers from their seeds, he made it possible for cotton to become the major crop of the American South, that is, “king cotton.” In one day, a single cotton gin operated by one person could clean as much cotton as fifty slaves did in a day’s time. With the gin, cotton growing became a major industry. Just before Whitney invented the cotton gin, British-born inventor Samuel Slater (1768–1835) built the first successful water-powered cotton-thread spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Slater’s mill and the factories that produced woven cloth increased the demand for cotton fibers. To meet the demand, growers in the southern states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina stepped up cotton production. Cotton’s importance to the livelihoods of southerners earned it the nickname…
