A Yale University graduate was considering becoming a lawyer, but he urgently needed a job. After a job as a tutor failed, he took a job on a plantation in Georgia. His employer, Catherine Green, saw a lot of talent in him and encouraged him to find a way to make cotton profitable. He soon began working on a solution to the problem of separating seeds from cotton. On March 14, 1794, Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the cotton gin.1 The cotton gin had an impact on American industry and slavery, changing the course of American history. The cotton gin was the answer to the woes of 19th century farmers. Before the invention of the cotton gin, not only was growing cotton labor intensive, but separating the fiber from the cotton seed itself was even more labor intensive. 2Before cotton ginning, a worker could only harvest seeds from about a pound of cotton per day. The cotton gin could clean up to 50 kilos per day. Farmers could now plant as much cotton as they wanted without having to worry about the difficulties of removing the seeds. Eli's invention spurred the growth of the cotton industry, and the South adopted the slogan "Cotton is King." The invention of the gin made cotton cultivation practical and cotton began to dominate the crop fields. Cotton was a crop that could be grown almost anywhere because it seemed to only need land to grow. Land that was once left empty due to poor growing capabilities was planted in the lucrative cotton crop. Growing cotton allowed farmers to cultivate fields that previously had to rest for a season. Southern farmers were able to make a profit thanks to Eli's machine which saved them time and labor. Whitne...... middle of paper ......e to the invention of the cotton gin which made it possible to clean 50 times the quantity of cotton then previously. The once declining practice of the slave trade took on new life and brought many people into slavery. Works Cited Gordon, John Steele. “King Cotton.” American Heritage 43.5 (1992): 18. Academic Research Premier. EBSCO. Internet. January 5, 2010. Martin, Kelly. “Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin.” About.com's guide to American history. Available at http://americanhistory.about.com/b/2009/03/14/eli-whitney-and-the-cotton-gin.htm. Internet; accessed January 5, 2010. Scheeren, William, O. "Invention of Cotton Gin." eHistory.com. Available at http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=31. Internet; accessed January 5, 2010. Smith, J. 2009. Making Cotton King. World Trade, July 1, 82. http://www.proquest.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/ (accessed January 6, 2010).