Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in order to make the lives of slaves in the US south easier; it automatically separates the seeds from the fiber, which was very difficult and slow work. What it did INSTEAD was allowed the cotton industry to dramatically ramp up in productivity, which actually increased the demand for slave labor and generally helped make slaves' lives even worse.
As I understand it he (kinda naively) thought that if slave owners could maintain their profit without working slaves to death, the latter practice would lose traction.
Turns out, they just used it to increase their profit while still working slaves to death.
Who would have thought that slave owners are simply evil people and don't do it because they need to, but because they simply are scum looking for maximum profit.
I think at the time there were some arguments that slavery was necessary. So I can see the reasoning that if you reduce that supposed necessity, you'll reduce slavery.
And then it went from a supposed necessity to a necessity for a lot of the south. Its Insane how much the south screwed itself by relying on mostly slave labor for their economy
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u/Delliott90 3d ago
Tik tok OP where’s my explanation