Although there was optimism directly after the Revolution that the standards of freedom and equivalence would encompass the black American population, this hope expired with the creation of the cotton gin in 1793. With the gin (short for engine), raw cotton could be quickly cleaned. Suddenly cotton became a lucrative crop, converting the southern economy and altering the dynamics of slavery.
In 1793, planters mentioned in Mrs. Greene’s company that if a machine could only be designed that would separate cotton from its seeds, they would be rich. The lady promptly replied that if the machine could be made, she was sure Mr. Whitney was the man to do it. Encouraged by her admiration, Whitney sent for cotton in bolls, and, locked himself up in an old outhouse, worked patiently until he made the first cotton engine also known as the cotton gin. Even though he had to draw his own wire and build his own tools, Whitney overcame every struggle. The new engine, was found so useful that with it a person could do about three hundred times …show more content…
Constitution. Blacks throughout the country celebrated the long-awaited event. Even following the ban, however, an illegal international slave trade sustained. The cotton boom and the ensuing demand for slaves brought increased risk for northern free blacks: the likelihood of being kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. The exercise of kidnapping was widespread. The 1793 Fugitive Slave Act enabled any white person to claim a black person as a fugitive, unless another white person testified otherwise. Blacks were not allowed to testify against whites in court according to southern law. Many southern slave-owners took a "no questions asked" approach to procuring slaves. Kidnapped free blacks united with the slaves who had been smuggled into the lower South, where they were work conditions were difficult and