Cotton Ginning Ad Summary

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Cotton Ginning Ad The cotton gin was a simple machine that greatly sped up the process of removing seeds from the cotton. Before the invention of the cotton gin, cotton did not allow for significant profit because it was difficult to separate the seeds from the cotton fiber. Much time had to be put into separating the seeds from the cotton. Eli Whitney was determined to find a solution to this long, non-efficient, process. Whitney’s invention of the Cotton Gin in 1793 helped cotton to become the major staple crop in the south, transforming the southern economy, and changing the dynamics of slavery. Within 10 years after the cotton gin was put into use, the value of the total United States crop leaped from $150,000 to more than $8 million…show more content…
This ad is believed to be the first public notice of Miller and Whitney's cotton gin. The intended audience is to farmers who grow cotton that wish to speed up the process. Miller has a formal, forthright tone because he is stating what has to happen in order to use his product. This article states, “for every five pounds delivered him in the seed he will return one pound of clean cotton fitted for market.” According to the Ad, the author Miller stays that he will gin cotton for farmers in exchange for one pound of the cotton . It is clear that the men are concentrated on maximizing profit for themselves however, the idea faced conflict, and it became evident that anyone could construct their copy of the gin resulting in others pirating Whitney’s machine2. Notably, farmers were happy because the machine was boosting production, but were unwilling to share significant percentages of profits with Whitney and his colleague. Farmers throughout Georgia began making their own versions of the machine and claimed that they were “new” inventions. This brought many costly lawsuits against Whitney and the other farmers. Inventor Eli Whitney once stated “ I have now taken a serious task upon myself and I feat a greater one that is in the power of any man to perform in the given time-but it is too late to go back.” Not able to make much profit, Miller and Whitney decided to give license to operate gins at a realistic

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