That was the key: Don’t try to remove the seeds from the cotton, but remove the cotton from the seeds. The gin — short for ... famous for his labor-saving invention. He would go on to pioneer ...

this hope died with the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. With the gin (short for engine), raw cotton could be quickly cleaned; Suddenly cotton became a profitable crop, transforming the ...

Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin, which easily separated cotton fiber from its seeds, was merely a motor for a global economic machine. Slavery was its fuel. Many stakeholders ...