Light

Cotton Gin

Definition

The cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.

Analogy

Think of the cotton gin as your school's janitor. Just like how the janitor efficiently cleans up after everyone, separating trash from recyclables, the cotton gin efficiently separates useful cotton fibers from their less useful seeds.

Related terms

Eli Whitney: He was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin.

Plantation System: This is a system of large-scale agriculture that specializes in farming one or two high-demand crops for sale. The efficiency of the cotton gin made this system more profitable in the Southern United States.

Slavery: A system where individuals are treated as property to be bought and sold. Unfortunately, despite making cotton processing easier, the invention of the cotton gin also increased demand for slave labor on plantations.