Industrial AgeTechnology Cotton gin 1793Major Eli Whitney's machine makes cotton hugely profitable and entrenches slavery in the American South. ▲ MattersSaveShareTrace roots Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → Habitual fire and cooking → Homo sapiens appears → Complex language → Natufian villages → Oldest known bread → Agriculture begins → Irrigation → Uruk and the first cities → Cylinder seals → Writing (cuneiform) → Akkadian Empire → Neo-Assyrian Empire → Persian Empire founded → Persian Royal Road → Silk Road opens → Marco Polo's journey → Columbus reaches the Americas → Columbian Exchange → Transatlantic slave trade → Cotton gin Community notesLoading notes… Learn more ranked by votesDocumentarchives.govEli Whitney's patent for the cotton gin (National Archives) ↗Editor's pickBookConstance McLaughlin GreenEli Whitney and the Birth of American Technology ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubeEli Whitney cotton gin impact slavery ↗Editor's pick