Eli Whitney
Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney is the famed creator of the cotton gin, a revolutionary device that forever changed the cotton industry in the Soutern United States in 1793. Between then and 1820, the amount of produced cotton grew from five million pounds per year in America, to 170 million pounds per year. This invention, while helpful in cotton production, also increased slave use in the South, which before the cotton gin, was on a decline. This new mass source of cotton started to fill the textile industry in New England, and too, allowed the American Industrial Revolution to continue on with a new source of raw material to feed the factories in the North.
("The Factory System Emerges: 1733–1865")