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1793
Eli Whitney, Inventor of the Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney, a schoolteacher, created a machine that would remove the bolls (husks) from cotton. Up until this time cotton was difficult to produce but after the creation of the Cotton Gin, production increased tenfold. Originally it was thought that the Cotton Gin would decrease the number of slaves needed to produce cotton, but the reality of the situation was that it made slavery even more important to the economy of the South.
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