28 Jan '13 21:50>
Originally posted by JS357So larger plantations were the result...but at some point there was only so much land to go around. This is where unemployment goes up and wages are slow to rise.
" However, like many inventors, Whitney (who died in 1825) could not have foreseen the ways in which his invention would change society for the worse. The most significant of these was the growth of slavery. While it was true that the cotton gin reduced the labor of removing seeds, it did not reduce the need for slaves to grow and pick the cotton. In fact, the ...[text shortened]... aspects of Southern life."
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/cotton-gin-patent/