"Whitney could not have foreseen the ways in which this invention would
change society for the worse. The most significant of these was the growth of
slavery. While
it was true that the cotton gin reduced the labor of removing
seeds, it did
not reduce the need for slaves to grow and pick the cotton. In
fact
,
the opposite occurred. Cotton growing became so profitable for the
planters that it greatly increased their demand for both land and slave labor."
From reading this passage, wha was an important effect of the invention of the
cotton gin?
The number of enslaved persons increased in the South.
Fewer enslaved persons were needed to work on plantations.
Enslaved persons replaced paid workers in northern textile factories.
Cultivation of cotton expanded to northern states.