The hand crank cotton gin shown in the video uses simple mechanical motion to separate cotton fibers from their seeds. As the crank turns, fibers are pulled through narrow slots while the larger seeds are held back, completing in seconds what once took much longer by hand. Before machines like this, removing seeds from cotton was slow and labor intensive, often done fiber by fiber. Early cotton gins dramatically increased efficiency, allowing farmers to process far more cotton in a single day an

231 years ago today, Eli Whitney received a patent for the cotton gin, one of the most transformative inventions in American history. Our clip from THE CIVIL WAR dives into how the cotton gin dramatically increased demand for slave labor in the South. #TodayInHistory | UNUM Ken Burns