The Impact of the Cotton Gin

Lesson 1 Guiding Question:

• How did the invention of the cotton gin change the South?

Lesson 1
1.  Ask students if they have ever heard of Eli Whitney.  Tell them that he was an important American inventor.  He invented something that changed our country in a big way, especially in the South.  Ask if anyone knows what he invented.  Tell students that you are going to read his obituary to find out why he is important to our country’s history.  (You may need to discuss what an obituary is.)  Pass out the copies of Eli Whitney’s Obituary from the Niles Weekly Register.
2.  Preview the obituary with the students.  Have the students look at the original version of the obituary as you ask them the following questions:
What type of document is this?  Where did it come from? (If necessary, give some choices from the document analysis sheet.)
When was it written?
Who was it written for?  Why?
What else do you notice about it?
3.  Tell students that you are going to read the obituary aloud.  Tell them that they should be listening for important facts about Eli Whitney.  Pause at the end of each paragraph to ask students to retell something important from that section. 
4.  Tell students it is their turn to be the historians.  They are going to analyze Whitney’s obituary to see what they can discover.  Break the students into cooperative groups.  Give each group a student-friendly version of the obituary and a document analysis sheet.
5.  Have the students read and discuss the obituary in small groups.  Have them complete the document analysis sheet together.  Circulate to assist with challenging vocabulary.
6.  Have students come together to share their responses on the document analysis sheet.  Create a class analysis on the overhead using their responses.  Be sure to correct any misconceptions.
7.  Call on student to summarize who Whitney was and what his important accomplishments were. 
8.  Ask students “What difference did Eli Whitney’s cotton gin make in the south?  How did the south change after the invention of the cotton gin?  What other changes do you think occurred because of the cotton gin?
9. Pass out the chart on Eli Whitney.  Tell students that they are going to record what they have learned about Eli Whitney on the chart.  They will also record their predictions of what other changes resulted from the invention of the cotton gin.

Lesson 2
1. Pass out cotton.  Have students try to remove seeds by hand.  Use a timer to see how long it takes to do one cotton boll.  Record the time for each student, then total the times.  Discuss difficulty of the task and techniques used.
2.  Show pictures of the baskets that held the cotton.  Put all their cotton lint together to see how much there is. Estimate how long it would take to fill a basket.  Show the photographs of bales of cotton.  Estimate how many baskets that would be.  How long would it take to make one bale?
3.  Show students the cotton gin and demonstrate how it works.  Time how long it takes to do the same amount of cotton that they did by hand.  Compare the ease and speed of the cotton gin with doing it by hand.  Discuss what changes may have occurred after the invention of the cotton gin.
4.  Examine charts of cotton sales.  Discuss how the cotton production changed.  Ask students why they think cotton production increased.
5.  Ask students if improvements in technology are always good for everyone.  Discuss what positive and negative results may have resulted from the invention of the cotton gin.
6.  Examine slave population chart.  Discuss how the slave population changed.  Ask students why they think the slave population increased.
7.  Discuss the positive and negative effects of the cotton gin. Guide the discussion with these questions:
What was something good that happened because of the cotton gin?
Who was it good for?  Was it good for anyone else?
What was something bad that happened because of the cotton gin?
Who was it bad for?  Was it bad for anyone else?
8.  Ask students to write a journal entry as someone who was affected by the invention of the cotton gin.  In their entry, they should explain who they are (some possible choices are plantation owners, slaves, or Eli Whitney) and how the cotton gin changed their life. Have students share their entries.
9.  Ask students if they can think of any modern advances in technology that have had positive effects for some and negative effects for others.
10.  Pass out the positive and negative effect chart.  Have students complete the positive and negative effect chart independently.  Tell them that they should be able to identify at least two positive effects and two negative effects for the cotton gin.

Historical Background Notes
Around the world, people wear cotton clothing, and they have done so for thousands of years.  Artifacts of cotton cloth have been found in Mexico, Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, around the Indus River, and along the coast of Africa.  Cotton was introduced to Europe by Arab traders around the first century.  However, cotton did not gain popularity in England until the 15th century, due to the prominence of wool in England.  However, by the late 1700’s, cotton imports to England began to steadily increase.  In 1783, England imported 9,000,000 pounds of cotton.  In 1790, English cotton imports rose to 28,000,000 pounds.  In 1812, English imported 63,000,000 pounds of cotton.  In 1825, England imported 228,000,000 pounds of cotton! (Mirsky and Nevins 1952, 91).

There are three types of cotton fibers (staples): long-staple, medium staple, and short-staple cotton.  The best type is the long-staple cotton, such as Sea Island Egyptian, and pima cottons.  Long-staple cotton is considered the best for two reasons.  First of all, it is the easiest type to work with because the seeds are smooth and relatively easy to remove.  Secondly, the longer fibers are better suited to weaving into fine cloth.  Unfortunately, this type of cotton is also the hardest to grow.  The second type of cotton is the medium-staple cotton.  It is easier to grow.  Ninety-five percent of the world’s cotton is the medium-staple length.  The third type is short-staple cotton.  It is used to make blankets and carpets or to blend with other fibers.  (Meltzer 2004).

Cotton was not an important crop in the early colonial days.  It was too difficult to make thread from the cotton lint.  Toward the end of the Revolutionary War, Sea Island cotton was grown along the southern coast.  Sea Island cotton had a smooth seed that was easier to remove.  By this time, the slave population in the south had grown to half a million.  Slave labor was needed to operate the southern plantations.  This was also true for the cotton plantations.  It took a great deal of labor to plant, tend, and pick the cotton.  Even more work was required to separate the seeds from the fibers and then to bale the cotton fibers.  Planters bought slaves to do the labor.

Eli Whitney was born on December 5, 1765.  He grew up in Massachusetts and showed a knack for mechanical work at an early age.  During the Revolutionary War, around the age of ten, Whitney started his first business.  He asked his father for a forge to make nails.  Nails were scarce during the war and sold at a good price.  When the war was over, England flooded the market with cheap nails and drove the price down.  So Whitney learned to make hatpins, which were a recent trend and in great demand.  (Knowing how to make hatpins would help later in his cotton gin design.)  He seemed to have a good business sense and an ability to notice what was needed. (Mirsky and Nevins 1952, 8-9)

Later, he worked as a teacher to earn money to go to college.  In 1789, at the age of 23, he went to Yale College.  He graduated from Yale in September 1792.  After college, he decided to study law.  To make some money while he studied, he took a job as a tutor for a southern plantation owner.  However, when he arrived, he learned that his salary would only be half of what he had been promised, so he did not take the job.  Instead, he agreed to work on the widow of General Nathaniel Greene’s plantation, assisting the plantation manager.  (Meltzer 2004).

Whitney heard some of the neighbors complaining about how long it took to remove the seeds from the green-seed cotton that grew in the area.  It took 10 hours to remove enough seeds to make one pound of lint.  It took nearly as many slaves to remove the seeds as it did to pick the cotton.  Whitney watched how the slaves cleaned the cotton, holding the seed with one hand and plucking out the lint with the other.  (Meltzer 2004).

As he watched, he developed his idea of how to create a machine to do the work faster and better that doing it by hand.  Whitney’s machine used a sieve of wires to hold the seed, while a drum with small hook-shaped wires brushed the lint away from the seed.  Another drum brushed the lint off the hooks.  In one hour, the cotton gin (engine) did as much work as several slaves could do in a day.  (Meltzer 2004).

Eli Whitney patented his machine, however, several people made their own versions of the gin.  Whitney never became rich from his invention.  Recently, there is also some evidence that indicates Henry Ogden Holmes, also known as Hodgen Holmes, invented a cotton gin prior to Whitney’s design.  Some people claim that Hodgen Holmes started working on a plan for a saw-toothed gin in 1787 at Kinkaid Plantation in Craven County.  Holmes obtained a Caveat of Intention for a saw-toothed cotton gin on March 14, 1789.  The Caveat was good for five years, expiring on March 14, 1794.  Whitney was granted his patent on that same date.  (Whitney or Holmes?)

After the invention of the cotton gin, cotton became America’s leading crop.  Cotton was king.  In 1790, America produced 1,500 pounds of cotton.  By 1800, production had increased to 35,000 pounds.  By 1815, production had reached 100,000 pounds. In 1848, production exceeded 1,000,000 pounds.  Simultaneously, slavery spread across the Deep South.  In 1790, the slave population was concentrated in Virginia on the tobacco plantations and along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia on the rice plantations.    In 1820, slavery had spread westward to Mississippi.  By the Civil War, about 4 million slaves lived in the South.  (Bruchey 1967, 16-17)

Teacher Reflections
I told the students that we would be historians.  We talked briefly about how historians gather information.  Then I told them that we would analyze a document the way that historians do.  I explained that this document was a primary source and how it was different than our text or other books that we read about history today.  They seemed rather excited.  We looked over the obituary together and discussed the features that they noticed.  Then I asked them to listen to find out why Eli Whitney was important.  Things seemed to be going well until I started reading.  About half of the class seemed to nearly fall asleep.  Things picked up when I split them into groups to analyzer the document.  I had asked them several of the questions during discussion earlier in the lesson and guided the groups through the data analysis sheet.  They seemed engaged in the process again and I was pleasantly surprised with some of the questions that they came up with.  After reviewing their responses on the chart, I was very pleased to see that all of the students were able to retell the key points about Eli Whitney.  They were not able to predict yet how the cotton gin might impact slavery, but I think that they were at a good starting point for the next lesson.  Afterwards, I got positive comments from the students.  They thought it was fun, and they were proud that they had learned some new information the way that historians do.

Examples of Students Work
Written Document Analysis Worksheet 

• http://teachingushistory.org/pdfs/StudentDocumentAnalysisWorksheet.pdf
• http://teachingushistory.org/pdfs/StudentDocumentAnalysisWorksheet2.pdf

How did Eli Whitney change the South?

• http://teachingushistory.org/pdfs/StudentHowDidEliWhitneyChangetheSouthC...
• http://teachingushistory.org/pdfs/StudentHowDidEliWhitneyChangetheSouthC...

Lesson 1

• Grade the “How Did Eli Whitney Change the South?” Chart
• Give 1 point for each column with a correct answer.  The prediction must relate to the invention of the cotton gin.

Rubric:

4 points = 100

3 points =  85

2 points  =  70

1 point    =  55

Lesson 2

• Grade the Positive and Negative Effect Chart.
• Give 1 point for each correct answer in the appropriate column.  They should have at least 2 positive effects and 2 negative effects.

Rubric:

4 points = 100

3 points =  85

2 points  =  70

1 point    =  55