No. 8. 



Whitney^ s Cotton-Gin. 



239 



The effect of Whitney's Cotton-Gin on 

 the Cotton Husbandry of the United 

 States. 



In 1793, the year of the invention, the 

 whole coUon crop of the United States was 

 5,000,000 lbs., and the total exportation 

 487,600 lbs. In 1795, when the cotton-gin 

 was first extensively introduced into Georgia 

 and South Carolina — then the principal re- 

 gion of that production — the whole crop in- 

 creased to 8,000,000 lbs., and the exporta- 

 tion to 1,601,760 lbs. In 1800, when the 

 machine had been thrown open to the people, 

 without limitation, from regard to the legal 

 rights of the patentee, the total production 

 of cotton in the United States during the 

 year amounted to 35,000,000 lbs., of which 

 17,789,803 lbs. were exported. In 1805, the 

 whole production was 70,000,000 lbs., and 

 the amount of upland cotton exported 29, 

 602,428 lbs.— (value, $9,445,000.) In 1810, 

 the crop was increased to 85,000,000 lbs., and 

 the exportation of upland cotton to 84,657, 

 384 lbs. In 1815, the whole of the United 

 States crop was 100,000,000 lbs., and the 

 exportation of upland cotton 74,548,796 lbs. 

 In 1820, the whole United States crop was 

 160,000,000 lbs.; the exportation of upland 

 116,291,137 lbs., valued at $22,308,667. In 

 In 1825, crop 255,000,000 lbs., exportation 

 of upland 166,784,629 lbs. In 1830, crop 

 350,000,000, exportation 290,311,937. In 

 1835, crop 475,000,000, exportation 379,000, 

 000. In 1840, crop 880,000,000, exportation 

 valued at $63,870,307. In 184-5, the United 

 States cotton crop was 1,029,850,000 lbs., 

 and the exportation of cotton 862,580,000 

 lbs.; the domestic consumption being 167, 

 270,000 lbs. 



The recent annexation of the immense 

 cotton lands of Texas, the abolition of the 

 import duty on American cotton in Great 

 Britain, and the vast and rapid increase of 

 the manufacture of cotton fabrics in all parts 

 of the United States, are evidences of the 

 certainty of a further increase in the pro- 

 duction of cotton in this country. Enor- 

 mous as has been the progress of this staple, 

 from 1791 to 1845, it is destined to a yet 

 greater extension in amount and value. 



The exclusion of East India cotton from 

 its previous monopoly of the markets of the 

 civilized world, from the beginning of the 

 present century, was mainly due to the in- 

 troduction of the cotton-gin in the Southern 

 States of the American Union, which sub- 

 stituted the rapid operations of machinery 

 for the tedious and costly labour of human 

 hands in the preparation of the crop for the 

 use of the manufacturer. The recent at- 

 tempts of the British Government and the 



East India Company to restore the success- 

 ful production of cotton in Hindostan, have 

 consisted largely in the introduction of Ame- 

 rican improvements, especially of " The 

 American Cotton-Gin," into those pro- 

 vinces which are adapted to the culture. 

 The greater cheapness of labour, and even 

 the superior quality of the product — in the 

 province of Dharwar, — were found to avail 

 nothing, without the advantages of Ameii- 

 can machinery. 



The pecuniary advantage of this inven- 

 tion to the United States is by no means 

 fully presented by an exhibition of the value 

 of the exports of cotton — amounting to more 

 than $1,400,000,000 in the last forty-three 

 years, — nor by the immense proportion of 

 the means which it has furnished this coun- 

 try to meet the enormous debts continually 

 incurred for imports from Britain and the 

 European continent, — cotton having for 

 many years constituted one-half, three-fifths, 

 or seven-tenths of the value of the exports 

 of the Union. But it was the introduction 

 of the cotton-gin which first gave a high 

 value and permanent market to the public 

 lands in the South-West. The rapid settle- 

 ment and improvement of almost the entire 

 States of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 Florida, and Texas, is mainly due to the en- 

 larged production of cotton consequent upon 

 the invention of Whitney. The States of 

 Georgia and Tennessee have also been 

 largely benefited by the same means in the 

 disposal of their domain, a vast portion of 

 which must have remained unoccupied and 

 valueless, but for the immense increase of 

 facilities for the preparation of cotton for 

 the market. In the three States of Ala- 

 bama, Mississippi and Louisiana, the sales 

 of the public lands of the General Govern- 

 ment amounted to 18,099,505 acres, during 

 the eleven years ending on the 30th of June, 

 1844 — yielding to the national treasury more 

 than $30,000,000. The sales of upland cot- 

 ton lands by the United States land offices 

 have amounted to many tens of millions of 

 acres; and none have been sold at a lower 

 rate than $1 25 an acre — a large proportion 

 at a higher rate. 



It is to be remarked, finally, that the cot- 

 ton-gins now in use throughout the whole 

 South are truly the original invention of 

 Whitney — that no improvement or success- 

 ful variation of the essential parts has yet 

 been effected. The actual characteristics 

 of the machine — the cylinder and brush — 

 the sole real instruments by which the seed 

 is removed and the cotton cleaned, rernain, 

 in cotton-gins of even the most recent man- 

 ufacture, precisely as Whitney hft them. 

 The principle has not been altered since 



