Almost everyone alive today. The cotton (en)gin(e) enabled widespread use of cotton in clothing and other textiles. Before the gin, (in the U.S.) slave labor was used to separate the seeds from the fibres. read more
The cotton gin increased the efficiency of cotton production by orders of magnitude. It was called in the language of the day the “hundred nigger machine.” It’s no exaggeration to point to it as one of the reasons that the cotton producing states could foresee the end of slavery, with or without the Civil War. read more
Still, the cotton gin had transformed the American economy. For the South, it meant that cotton could be produced plentifully and cheaply for domestic use and for export, and by the mid-19th century, cotton was America’s leading export. read more