li Whitney’s ingenious invention of the Cotton Gin in 1793 shows how inefficient manual slave labour is supporting Kolchin’s claims of slavery being an unviable method. Whitney presents his reasons for inventing a machine to gin cotton in a letter written to his father in the same year, where he states that this machine ‘would be a great thing both to the Country and to the inventor… It makes the labor fifty times less, without throwing any class of people out of business.’ This letter shows Whitney’s intent for helping to create a better and more efficient economy through his invention, which would decrease the amount of effort and labour need to pick, separate and clean cotton before sending it to cotton mills then to overseas trading. However, by stating that his invention would not put ‘any class’ out of work presents Whitney’s belief that slavery is a viable method of producing cotton and that making the Cotton Gin was by no means a replacement for slave labour but an extension of it. …show more content…
Lakwete argues that ‘Whitney’s gin bore responsibility for not only the creation of the cotton South but also its destruction’ as it drove the industrial revolution and consequently started causing the prices of slaves to rise, ‘from $300 to $400’ normally to ‘$1000 or $2000’ after the gin became popular. Lakwete suggests that The Civil War was one of the consequences of the rising prices of slaves, which further supports Kolchin’s ideology on slavery becoming an unviable method shown through the chain of consequences left after the invention of the Cotton Gin. This proves slavery unsuccessfulness because of the invention of machinery that requires less effort and slave power to meet production