Just as slavery was going down a contraption by the name of the cotton gin skyrocketed cotton production, in turn increasing slavery in the south. Eli Whitney was an inventor, a man who strived for manufacturing success. When he created the cotton gin the poor guy did not even get credit for it, leaving every company to copy his model and create their own cotton gin. America supplied over half of the worlds cotton but before the cotton gin,cotton prices were going up leaving people to use wool as a cheaper substitute. It was either shaving some sheep or enslave thousands of more African Americans, of course they chose the latter as it was more profitable.

Cotton was picked by hand by slaves and it was a time consuming job. After they spent countless hours picking the seeds out of it, but luckily the handy cotton gin did this job for them, taking out seeds at five times the speed. And as cotton was separated faster, more slaves were needed to pick it leading to a boom in slavery down south. The term cotton king became popular as the already rich farmers were becoming even richer off of the cotton business. This was all thanks to Eli Whitney who didn’t even get credit for his brilliant invention. What he did get credit for was populating plantations with slaves that, if not for him wouldn’t have been needed to begin with.

http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/7800/7804/cottongin_7804.htm