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In grade 5, my teacher got hold of a half-bale of raw cotton, a dozen cotton combs, and a hand cranked gin. Six kids with combs in 15 minutes managed to de-seed a single palmful of cotton each. Then the gin crew, three kids, went to work. 15 minutes later, they'd separated half the bale.
1000nod you laugh but you know the teacher would be cancelled in this day and age. Granted they’d be especially dumb for not realizing the impact, but still
@@generalalduin9548 actually i belive that DID in fact happen even thoughthe teacher in question had done this for year and his point wasn't slavery but as a demonstraition of what a game changer the Gin was
Ironically the cotton gin contributed to the South's defeat during the Civil War, as the continued reliance on the slave-based cotton industry kept the South from industrializing to the extent the North had. Steel and iron production, miles of railway laid, goods produced, etc. The South was wholy based on producing and exporting cotton, while the North industrialised and diversified its economy.
More then that. The greedy jackass barons didn't actually re-invest any of their wealth back into their states. So every single thing was just inherently shittier in the south and their armies knew it. It's one of those situations of rich people just assuming they have to do nothing, because everything should be given to them for free.
@@matthewjones370 ...that mattered EXTREMELY little when the industry is slave based. "Oh cool! More railroads for your six trains to transport the badly made bullets to the front! I sure am glad you have seven railroads for those six trains. Boy, I sure do hope nothing bad happens to one of them, cause the British aren't supplying any more warships after the Trent Affair!"
I think this should be stressed more had they not screwed him out of his profits for his invention he may not have created the exact device that destroyed the southern slave owners
(Quietly) Both sides had that technology, as did the arms dealers in France and the UK, making the war even bloodier and facilitating late 19th century Imperialism worldwide.
A simple form of the cotton gin has been used in India and China for centuries before the Whitney patent. Those were not nearly as efficient, but they were far better than using fingers alone.
Fascinating and thank you for informing me of such. Did the racist slave owners ever try and use such or were they too wrapped up in their centrism to look to outside methods? Not that the worm gear roller would have helped the enslaved any more than Whitney's did.
@@dragonsorchardofgames These slavers probably never knew of that, but as Jascha said also weren't general fans of what they considered people beneath them. That included every culture foreign to them, or just the culture they left behind while finding out what was American over it's roots.
Yes, and no. Those were roller gins, and they were known to the southern planters, but only worked with long staple cotton. The long staple cotton didn't grow well through most of the South, while short staple cotton grew well. Eli Whitney's cotton gin could process the short staple cotton that grew through much of the South.
Being from Connecticut, we all learn about the ironic tragedy that was the cotton gin. It's also worth mentioning that Whitney us a hero here. There are many major streets, and a science museum named after him. From my understanding, he's honoured just as much for his anti-slavery views, as for his engineering brilliance.
@@gadaadhoon I mean yeah, when Harriet Tubman was born Thomas Jefferson was still alive and she was alive when Ronald Reagan was born Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826 Harriet Tubman 1822-1913 Ronald Reagan 1911-2004
This is the story of almost all pre-20th Century technology. New technology advancements don't allow us to do less work. The allow us to do MORE work in the same amount of time.
It's the story of 20th century technology too. There was a time when people thought that technology like the desktop computer would have us all working 3 hour workdays. This goes far to explain why the Halls of Finance and Business aren't run by engineers. The suits figured that, if technology let one person do the work of two, what did they need the second person for? So they laid off workers, gave themselves bonuses, and laughed as their remaining workers worked even harder out of fear they would be next.
Been a long time fan of extra history and extra mythology since the last 4 years, thx for getting me through my school life with something that always relieved my stress and helped me study carefree afterwards, thx for the knowledge too
Yeah extra history helped me feel better when I was dealing with my brother dying. There were a few UA-cam pages that took my mind off him. I’ll always appreciate extra history for that.
Even though most southerners weren't slaveowners, I think it's worthwhile to say how many were. 30% of Southern households owned slaves, almost a third of the south. And, although many rank and file Confederate soldiers didn't personally own slaves, it's also worth saying that they were still enthusiastic supporters of slavery and knowingly supported secession as a slavery issue.
yeah. Many were either very much pro slavery, or indifferent at best. I had family that served on both sides of the war. My family has the advantage of stories from both sides allowing a larger picture.
@@noahjohnson935 Most southerners I know are generally friendly, but there are also racists and neoconfederates. However, this is a very small group of peoples.
Yea, but most still just fought for the confederates because their state was part of the confederate, for example an excelent general named Robert E Lee
@@AnimeShinigami13 *Slaves:* By how much? *Slave owners:* Eeeehhh...a tiny bit...maybe? That is if I don't just have them do a bunch of other stuff since they'd have more time to. So I'd say...not at all in the long term! *Slaves:* ...**desires for freedom intensifies**
This is a common topic in many states, and a big part of AP exams in US history, in California, and from what my friends in Colorado and Texas say, there too. It’s unfortunate that this isn’t regulated
One of the biggest things that I remember about the cotton gin, despite not knowing what it did, except that it was used in cotton production, was all of the horrific injuries and mutilations it caused slave workers.
Kind of the modern economy. Someone invents a technology to make work easier so that the workers won't suffer as much. Then company owners just use the easier work to push their workers to do even more work with the same pay, resources, and time; making nothing better. Or worse, use this as an excuse to fire most of their workers and force the remaining workers into worse situations for the "privilege" of keeping their jobs.
What lol over the last 200 years extreme poverty rates have gone down globally while real average income has gone up drastically, countries with more economic freedom have more prosperity and higher gdp per capita
Look at Amazon they make innovations but those were at the cost of their workers warehouse or otherwise while Jeff Bezos continue sending space d*cks in the sky.
little detail not mentioned here: Those cotton seeds inside are SHARP like thorn-covered little burrs. Getting them out of there is painful. Although, eventually your fingers would become callus and tough.
I love how they not only cover the more well-known subjects like how the firstr world war began, but also all these topics I'd never even hear about otherwise.
In Brazil we're changing how we refer to the Africans forcefully brought to our country - not as "slaves" anymore but as "enslaved". It's one of the language changes that I find to be actually good and useful. After all, no one "is a slave", people are enslaved.
If someone is enslaved, then they _are_ "a slave". Because that's what the word means. I really don't see how changing a well-understood and long-used term to a clunky new one that means exactly the same thing helps anyone.
@Aditya Chavarkar Awesome example of the Motte and Bailey tactic where a real position which is difficult or even impossible to defend is replaced with an easy to defend but fake position "showing basic decency".
The only time I can think of where that actually happened was water plumbing to housing. Which ended the practice of making women fetch water from Wells/rivers wherever the plumbing was placed.
Now think about how those same innovations in firearm technology led to slaveowners in other countries that rule through use of modern firearms. Everything is cyclical.
Already i know this is gonna be sad due to slavery.. Also the artist for this is INCREDIBLEY talented!! The lineweight and designs are just so nice to look at, but still recognizable that its in extra history!
@@iapetusmccool I thought Nobel had nothing to do with weapons other than the initial invention of TNT for mining purposes which was then used by others to make more powerful artillery.
I love the videos these guys do, but it always reminds me of how poor the American Education system is. I graduated High School in 2015, and I'm still learning new things that were not taught such as the negatives of the Cotton Gin. How can a school in the North not address these negative aspects, all we learned was that it was an industrial innovation and it made life easier.
I graduated in 2002 and had learned about the cotton gin backfiring on Eli Whitney, but I went to school in Connecticut and he's a major figure in the state's history. There are schools named after him here.
There's a reason why the establishment doesn't teach you more about civil war history other than "southern slavery bad but northern slavery that still exists TO THIS DAY, good". Like for example the corwin amendment? Or the fact that hundreds of thousands of native Americans allied with the south meanwhile only thousands of natives joined the north
On day in my engineering class we were talking about slavery and such because we had finished our work and someone brought up how people thought the cotton gin would free slaves and My engineering teacher said “remember when how I said there’s always something you have to loose something when gaining something in engineering? How you always have a trade off in mechanical advantage? Same applies to society, not a single invention has made someone’s life better without also in some way making someone else’s worse”
Thanks guys for making such a great video. The history books almost never talk that deep about Eli Whitney that much or go I to his work in firearms. He and his factory complex 'Whitneyville' pioneered the interchangeable parts that would go on to support the later industrial revolution of the later half of the 19th century and our very own modern day. He also made more than that initiall 10000 muskets. He would go on to make more for the US government, picking up the slack of the arsenal systems while developing other designs for the civilian market. His company wouldn't go out of business until I believe the 1880s.
I wonder, in a Parellel Universe where EW started his own company, buying cotton cheaper as it was with seeds in it, how things would have panned out...
@@BREAKCORE-DISSOCIATEyeah ok. Then you'll say, slavery was everywhere, but no matter where it was, American chattel slavery is unique. Race based slavsry didn't exost and neither did racism, until. ..
@roringusanda2837 you read that right. You should go do some research. You ever heard of Bacon's Rebellion? I love when idiots laugh at facts. It's extremely funny.
I actually own a cotton gin I had gotten the functioning system (though I had to replace a lot of the wooden structure) it was from a farm auction. After some rust removal and grease it works like a charm. Though I wish I had some cotton to test it. Hard to believe that such a device can be named the start of such massive and monumental events.
The thing to note is that innovation does make the world a better place on average. But because we live in a system where wealth and power naturally concentrates in fewer and fewer people instead of benefiting everyone, that average gain doesn't translate to a gain for the average person. It's not the fault of innovation, but of the system. So, you know, don't direct your anger at the wrong thing.
That is not really true, as you can see, that the average wealth in the world has risen, but the richest people on earth are not really richer than the richest people in the past. They might have more money, but the money they own is less worth than the money in the past. If you then wonder why the wealth of the middle class and lower class is sinking in America and some other western countries, then you have just look at the third world countries and China, because the manufacturing industries are moving their production into countries, where they have to pay lower wages, less bürocratic hurdles, and taxes, which in turn increases the average wealth of those countries.
@@timavoievodin3255 capitalism was the very system which made slavery so profitable and still does. the so called "progress" of capitalism is never seen by the masses who work and die in squalor for the profits of the elite. The wealth of the US and Europe does not come from any innovation or industriousness but from the outright robbery of resources from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, to this day Africa only actually controls a fraction of its natural resources
You are a gem 💎! One of my Grade 9 students introduced me to your channel years ago. I ended up flavouring my all my history classes, from Grade 7 to 11, with Extra History. They were all absolutely delighted!!!
That's sadly the case for a lot of supply lines for goods throughout history and into the modern era. Bananas have a very bloody history in South America.
Back on elementary school I did a class report on Eli Whitney and his invention. In the wood shop part of school teachers even helped me make a prop Cotten gin. This was back in 1998, or 1999.
Yes! Although they should make an effort to include the Lincoln Assassination in the series (including information about JWB, his band of conspirators, the kidnapping plot, the assassination plot, the manhunt for JWB and his band of conspirators, and the military trial that came after). We need to know more details of the event other than scratching the surface with the narrative of "JWB did the dirty deed because he was a Confederate sympathizer." True, that's what JWB was. But there's much more to the Lincoln Assassination than just that. I say this because a few years ago, I was in DC and got to visit Ford's Theater (and the Peterson boarding house across the street, which was where Lincoln died; standing in that very room was a somber experience) and learned quite a lot about JWB, his co-conspirators, etc.
The cotton gin sounds a lot like computers, or cars, or any other invention that supposedly makes things easier but can never keep up with infinite demand.
@@TheVoiceOfReason93 The only way to "do something about that" is by using force with lots and lots of imperialism. And if that's the option, then you're looking at massive opposition.
@@8is A "fair" system which just so happens to have the worst record of creating the worst oligarchies in human history with absolute power and human rights abuses. People like that get hung and guillotined, at best.
I should also point out that rising cotton demand also pushed Southern plantation owners into using systems of coercion, with some incentives, to get more and more work out of their slaves the result was that the productivity of slaves increased significantly prior to the Civil War. Although incentives played a part the major push came from coercion, involving whippings, beatings etc., along with threats of family separation to produce workers who among other things picked cotton very fast and of course also pushing most adult slaves into primary production activities. All of which resulted in significant profits for slave owners. The result was that the 1850s were a golden age of massive prosperity for slave owners and slave prices increased dramatically. The election of Lincoln in 1860 posed the problem that he just might do something that would reduce the income and wealth of the slave owners. Certainly in the 1850s and earlier slave owners had been fighting very hard to erase, remove any threat to their slave wealth. Thus confining slavery, restricting its expansion, the very existence of Abolitionism, in fact anti-slavery in general, i.e., any sort of verbal condemnation threatened that wealth. The existence of fugitive slaves, anything less than fanatical enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act along with anything less than support for slavery threatened that wealth in that view. In 1860 the conventional attitude in the South among most people was slavery was just fine and dandy and it should be perpetuated well into the future if not forever, because it was the source of wealth and status. (Note in 1860 at least 35% of the total wealth of the South was in the "value" of the slave population and in the Confederacy it was almost certainly over 45%.) There was very little willingness to part with all that wealth.
@@jonnunn4196 The deaths per person ate still highers in rural areas. The only reason why cities have higher numbers of deaths is due to having a large population, opposed to the small population of a countryside.
Love your work brother, but Natchez is pronounced "NAAT-CHEZ" not "NOT-CHEZ." (Long "A" sound there that you're missing there.) - Longtime Mississippi resident.
I think I big thing missed in this video is who was buying the cotton. International trade costs a lot of money and with each country imposing tariffs the south was selling most of their goods to England for higher profits than to the north. A huge factor to the war was the industrial north pushing legislation that imposed more tariffs on cotton to England trying to force the south to exclusively sell the cotton to the north at less of a profit.
I've a white friend whose mother lived in Mississippi and left him a oil painting she did of "happy" slaves dancing in front of their shacks after dark. She was under the belief they had a better life being slaves picking cotton and working the plantation than they otherwise would have had in Africa. It was beneficial for all involved. My friend asked me as a Black person what I thought. I thought the cultural divide was so stunningly vast his mother couldn't understand it unless she lived as a member of the slave community. Even Jesus lived among us to identify with our challenges... He left the Big House to live in the shacks.
Another thing most people don't realize: sure Eli Whitney's cotton gin was hand powered, but most cotton guns that were used were gigantic and powered by horses or small motors when they came about.
"promise that you too might own slaves someday". Ah, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The promise of the "American dream". This is how the rich avoid taxation and get poor and middle class people to uphold that - at their cost, which in turn, among other factors, pretty much guarantees that they aren't going to become rich...
The rich pay a lot more taxes compared to poor in the US than in a lot of other countries. In Sweden for example, more of the taxes are provided by poorer individuals because the poor holds more taxable money. You can't actually tax the super-rich because their money exists as stock in massive companies. If you tax the companies, they will be forced to simply forward that cost down the supply change to eventually the consumers. Because Sweden has higher taxes overall, this forces Sweden to tax everyone more equally, rich and poor alike. The US has actually a really progressive tax system compared to other well-developed countries.
@Aditya Chavarkar Yeah, we used to tax them more because there was nowhere for them to fucking go, genius. The world was a smoking crater after WW2. Now? There's millions of places for them to run off to.
Well a market that allows those who can to take or aquier slaves certainly is free from "nasty" labor protection laws and corresponding *goverment oversight*. You would be amazed for how many people no goverment oversight is the be all end all of a free market.
The thing about Eli inventing interchangeable musket parts. That is factually wrong. Eli never managed to achieve the technology. He merely promised it while on a contract for 15,000 muskets i believe. He kept delaying the contract saying that he needed to "perfect the technology". In the end he never achieved it, it was done way later by 3 Factory owners (for the life of me i can't find their names).
Agreed. But should they cover the Lincoln Assassination, they need to not scratch the surface by using the brief and repetitive narrative of "JWB did the dirty deed because he was a Confederate sympathizer." True, JWB was that. But they should also mention that JWB did not just intend to kill Lincoln. He also wanted to kill VP Andrew Johnson, SOS (Secretary of State) William Seward, and General Ulysses S. Grant.
1:45 woops, West Virginia split off after the Civil War, was still a part of Virginia at this point. Also modern maps at 5:21 and 7:00, most of the western states weren't states yet and didn't have those borders
Being finnish I completely missed that gin = jenny. Those words sound nothing alike! So I thought this to be a story of an alcoholic drink distilled from cotton seed and got super excited...
Yeah except Alfred Nobel wasn't a Fraud. Honoré Blanc and Thomas Blanchard invented the actual processes, Whitney faked them to trick the government into giving him the contract and them proceeded to hand make the guns, which is why they were 10 years late and none of them worked.
Even tho Extra Credits tend to hold a high standard when it comes to writing and choice of topic, I would say this one stands out as an especially good video.
My great, greater grandfather was John Whitney and as a child remember hearing Eli and Asa Whitney's names with family and also related to the Vanderbilt's and De vere and King Louie and Marie Antoinette. Crazy how many😮
We lived near a cotton field and my mum was able to talk to somebody about letting us pick a few by hand and that being SO MUCH FUN... lol... after that she had us pick the seeds by hand, no comb. Just manual. Thad hurt so bad!
The A in Natchez is actually pronounced similarly to "at" , at least by locals. Fyi, you should look into natchez history like the devil's punchbowl and the native american mounds. Pretty cool.
there was this other hand-cranked machine that its inventor supposedly thought would reduce casualties of war because only fewer soldiers would be needed to fight battles. the Gatling Gun. guess what happened next.
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I just did a project about the cotton gin and Eli Whitney. For my college history class.
Filipino-American war & Boxer Rebellion
Solid Proof of all claims made required to validate the real facts.
am your greatest fan.
So now that we've seen y'all can draw Lincoln, when can we expect a series on the Civil War and/or life of Lincoln to come out?
In grade 5, my teacher got hold of a half-bale of raw cotton, a dozen cotton combs, and a hand cranked gin. Six kids with combs in 15 minutes managed to de-seed a single palmful of cotton each. Then the gin crew, three kids, went to work. 15 minutes later, they'd separated half the bale.
I hope to god there weren’t any African American kids in your class, that would’ve caused a media circus.
@@generalalduin9548 Haa ha ha🤣
1000nod you laugh but you know the teacher would be cancelled in this day and age. Granted they’d be especially dumb for not realizing the impact, but still
@@generalalduin9548 actually i belive that DID in fact happen even thoughthe teacher in question had done this for year and his point wasn't slavery but as a demonstraition of what a game changer the Gin was
@@generalalduin9548 fair
Ironically the cotton gin contributed to the South's defeat during the Civil War, as the continued reliance on the slave-based cotton industry kept the South from industrializing to the extent the North had. Steel and iron production, miles of railway laid, goods produced, etc. The South was wholy based on producing and exporting cotton, while the North industrialised and diversified its economy.
More then that. The greedy jackass barons didn't actually re-invest any of their wealth back into their states. So every single thing was just inherently shittier in the south and their armies knew it. It's one of those situations of rich people just assuming they have to do nothing, because everything should be given to them for free.
The south made more railroads than the north dumb dumb
@@matthewjones370 yes, but they were more spread out. Look up a map of what railroads looked like back then, and you can see a clear divide
@@matthewjones370 ...that mattered EXTREMELY little when the industry is slave based.
"Oh cool! More railroads for your six trains to transport the badly made bullets to the front! I sure am glad you have seven railroads for those six trains. Boy, I sure do hope nothing bad happens to one of them, cause the British aren't supplying any more warships after the Trent Affair!"
@@matthewjones370 Even then, they didn't have the industry to maintain their engines and tracks. Trains don't work without those.
Whitney: I will make a machine to end slavery!
[slavery continues]
Whitney:... fine then, I will make guns to end slavery
John Brown's body lies moudering in the grave but his soul goes marching on
Oh, the irony.
PARRY THIS YOU FUCKING CASUALS
not only continue but revive ironically
@@Sleepy_Cabbage I appreciate that reference
6:15 Eli Whitney can rest easy knowing his work on interchangeable parts helped defeat the Confederacy in the Civil War.
Sweet posthumous ironic revenge.
I think this should be stressed more had they not screwed him out of his profits for his invention he may not have created the exact device that destroyed the southern slave owners
Died making the invention that would put the traitorous dogs that pirated his original invention in their place, bloody legend
(Quietly) Both sides had that technology, as did the arms dealers in France and the UK, making the war even bloodier and facilitating late 19th century Imperialism worldwide.
Why the hell would you think the South didn't have interchangeable parts on muskets almost 40 years after the the fact?
A simple form of the cotton gin has been used in India and China for centuries before the Whitney patent. Those were not nearly as efficient, but they were far better than using fingers alone.
Fascinating and thank you for informing me of such. Did the racist slave owners ever try and use such or were they too wrapped up in their centrism to look to outside methods? Not that the worm gear roller would have helped the enslaved any more than Whitney's did.
I think those where not exactly people looking to other cultures for solutions....
@@jaschaeidam7469 Good point. And thanks again
@@dragonsorchardofgames These slavers probably never knew of that, but as Jascha said also weren't general fans of what they considered people beneath them. That included every culture foreign to them, or just the culture they left behind while finding out what was American over it's roots.
Yes, and no. Those were roller gins, and they were known to the southern planters, but only worked with long staple cotton. The long staple cotton didn't grow well through most of the South, while short staple cotton grew well. Eli Whitney's cotton gin could process the short staple cotton that grew through much of the South.
"The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future." - Frank Herbert
It's not funny how true that quote is. Just look at emerging technologies like machine-learning and just how many industries AI is disrupting.
@@unimprezzedmclastname4220 The man predicted corporations willingly causing climate change and Radical Islamic Terror. He knew of what he spoke.
Smh
@snailwithinternetaccess miscommunication. Predicted Corporations and climate change. Also predicted Islamic Terror.
@@unimprezzedmclastname4220 can’t tell you how many businesses are looking for employees.
Being from Connecticut, we all learn about the ironic tragedy that was the cotton gin. It's also worth mentioning that Whitney us a hero here. There are many major streets, and a science museum named after him.
From my understanding, he's honoured just as much for his anti-slavery views, as for his engineering brilliance.
My grandad used to talk as bout his grandad and how being sold down the river to a cotton plantation was worse than Death.
Good grief, every once in a while I hear something like this and realize how little time has passed since slavery.
@@gadaadhoon
A lot can happen in just a few generations, also alot of nothing can change in many more generations...
@@gadaadhoon I mean yeah, when Harriet Tubman was born Thomas Jefferson was still alive and she was alive when Ronald Reagan was born
Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826
Harriet Tubman 1822-1913
Ronald Reagan 1911-2004
I honestly got scared thinking about that.
Your great-great-grandfather was a slave?
This is the story of almost all pre-20th Century technology. New technology advancements don't allow us to do less work. The allow us to do MORE work in the same amount of time.
It's the story of 20th century technology too. There was a time when people thought that technology like the desktop computer would have us all working 3 hour workdays. This goes far to explain why the Halls of Finance and Business aren't run by engineers. The suits figured that, if technology let one person do the work of two, what did they need the second person for? So they laid off workers, gave themselves bonuses, and laughed as their remaining workers worked even harder out of fear they would be next.
The technology DOES allow you to do less work.
The BOSS doesnt. The problem is the boss.
That's a flaw of capitalism not technology.
@@DTDdeathmas that's flaws of not democratic institutions, not capitalism
This is only a small part of the truth. The average person after the industrial revolution was much richer than the average person before.
Been a long time fan of extra history and extra mythology since the last 4 years, thx for getting me through my school life with something that always relieved my stress and helped me study carefree afterwards, thx for the knowledge too
@what what
Yeah extra history helped me feel better when I was dealing with my brother dying. There were a few UA-cam pages that took my mind off him. I’ll always appreciate extra history for that.
I’ve been hooked since the series on the hunt for the Bismarck.
As a crazy Romanov nerd, I must say that they do an excellent job on the series that involve the dynasty (their Rasputin series was REALLY well done).
@@clonetrooper8669 same
Even though most southerners weren't slaveowners, I think it's worthwhile to say how many were. 30% of Southern households owned slaves, almost a third of the south. And, although many rank and file Confederate soldiers didn't personally own slaves, it's also worth saying that they were still enthusiastic supporters of slavery and knowingly supported secession as a slavery issue.
Unknown fact thank you
yeah. Many were either very much pro slavery, or indifferent at best.
I had family that served on both sides of the war. My family has the advantage of stories from both sides allowing a larger picture.
@@noahjohnson935 Most southerners I know are generally friendly, but there are also racists and neoconfederates. However, this is a very small group of peoples.
Also, according to Historian Glatthar, confederate soldiers were more likely to either own slaves or had family who did.
Yea, but most still just fought for the confederates because their state was part of the confederate, for example an excelent general named Robert E Lee
Slaves: “So this machine will make our lives easier?”
Plantation owners: “Well yes, but actually no.”
Plantation owners: Soooomeee of you.
@@AnimeShinigami13
*Slaves:* By how much?
*Slave owners:* Eeeehhh...a tiny bit...maybe? That is if I don't just have them do a bunch of other stuff since they'd have more time to. So I'd say...not at all in the long term!
*Slaves:* ...**desires for freedom intensifies**
*random chimp in a suit appears*
Thank you for teaching me and my wife something that we were NEVER taught in either high school or college.
We live in North Carolina.
This is a common topic in many states, and a big part of AP exams in US history, in California, and from what my friends in Colorado and Texas say, there too. It’s unfortunate that this isn’t regulated
One of the biggest things that I remember about the cotton gin, despite not knowing what it did, except that it was used in cotton production, was all of the horrific injuries and mutilations it caused slave workers.
@@BREAKCORE-DISSOCIATE :|
@@The_mrbob got em
The Poor: Gee! Maybe with this innovation, the rich will finally give us a fair shake!
The Rich: Well yes, but actually no.
The universal constant.
Kind of the modern economy.
Someone invents a technology to make work easier so that the workers won't suffer as much.
Then company owners just use the easier work to push their workers to do even more work with the same pay, resources, and time; making nothing better.
Or worse, use this as an excuse to fire most of their workers and force the remaining workers into worse situations for the "privilege" of keeping their jobs.
Envy is not a form of moral outrage and someone being better then you is not slavery.
@@joelanderson5285 being better, you mean being born with better living conditions lmao
What lol over the last 200 years extreme poverty rates have gone down globally while real average income has gone up drastically, countries with more economic freedom have more prosperity and higher gdp per capita
Look at Amazon they make innovations but those were at the cost of their workers warehouse or otherwise while Jeff Bezos continue sending space d*cks in the sky.
little detail not mentioned here: Those cotton seeds inside are SHARP like thorn-covered little burrs. Getting them out of there is painful. Although, eventually your fingers would become callus and tough.
Ironically, the cotton gin ensured that slavery would only end at the tip of a bayonet.
I suppose that just shows that automation of the wrong side of the supply chain first leads to disastrous consequences for humanity
@@scottanos9981 That's a good way of putting it.
Extra credits allows me to continue learning things that aren’t just for tests and school, and continue to enjoy learning. Thank you guys :)
I love how they not only cover the more well-known subjects like how the firstr world war began, but also all these topics I'd never even hear about otherwise.
It’s sad because Eliah hoped that his invention would make slavery no longer necessary.
I just did a project about the cotton gin and Eli Whitney. For my college history class.
did u pass
The earliest and one of the saddest instances of the rebound effect I‘ve hear of.
In Brazil we're changing how we refer to the Africans forcefully brought to our country - not as "slaves" anymore but as "enslaved". It's one of the language changes that I find to be actually good and useful. After all, no one "is a slave", people are enslaved.
Sounds like someone is trying to bamboozle people, that is always the real motivation behind these language changes.
If someone is enslaved, then they _are_ "a slave". Because that's what the word means.
I really don't see how changing a well-understood and long-used term to a clunky new one that means exactly the same thing helps anyone.
@@joelanderson5285 explain. How so?
@Aditya Chavarkar Awesome example of the Motte and Bailey tactic where a real position which is difficult or even impossible to defend is replaced with an easy to defend but fake position "showing basic decency".
I get it. Enslaved means you're a normal person who's been taken. Calling a person a slave forgets that it's actually a humam captive.
Wow imagine that, not being able to simply invent your way around systemic societally rooted issues!
The only time I can think of where that actually happened was water plumbing to housing. Which ended the practice of making women fetch water from Wells/rivers wherever the plumbing was placed.
[side-eyes climate crisis technocrats]
at least Eli Whitney had a lot of innovation in machinery used for making guns to get back at the people who made this atrocity
And having guns with interchangable parts played a significant role later on in the Civil War.
@@M.E.ANDHistory Whitney was a fraud. He did't actually make the guns or do so interchangeably.
Now think about how those same innovations in firearm technology led to slaveowners in other countries that rule through use of modern firearms.
Everything is cyclical.
Already i know this is gonna be sad due to slavery..
Also the artist for this is INCREDIBLEY talented!! The lineweight and designs are just so nice to look at, but still recognizable that its in extra history!
This is my favorite Extra Credits/History Artstyle
Man imagine if the aristocracy didn’t have influence in the government and was banned from doing so
comrade we shall overthrow the global north to enrich our brothers across the world, from brazil and argentina to ukraine and lao
aristocracy by definition has influence in the government
An d who will pass this legislation? *The Aristocracy*
@@someguynamedsomething9612 *Facepalm*
I mean the question then is how would one ban them in, really any kind of legal way,
Obviously the slaves are the true victim of this invention, but I do feel bad for Eli Whitney. The man's plan backfired on basically every level.
Oh, that has been the case with many an invention (*cough*guillotine*coughcough*).
@@M.E.ANDHistory or Alfred Nobel's idea that if he invented really, really deadly guns, no-one would ever dare to go to war.
@@iapetusmccool Well, we sort of did get to that point with nukes, but the US and the USSR just made nations without nukes fight their battles.
@@iapetusmccool I thought Nobel had nothing to do with weapons other than the initial invention of TNT for mining purposes which was then used by others to make more powerful artillery.
@@Zefurion1988 he also invented smokeless powder, and established a number of arms factories.
I love the videos these guys do, but it always reminds me of how poor the American Education system is. I graduated High School in 2015, and I'm still learning new things that were not taught such as the negatives of the Cotton Gin. How can a school in the North not address these negative aspects, all we learned was that it was an industrial innovation and it made life easier.
I graduated in 2002 and had learned about the cotton gin backfiring on Eli Whitney, but I went to school in Connecticut and he's a major figure in the state's history. There are schools named after him here.
There's a reason why the establishment doesn't teach you more about civil war history other than "southern slavery bad but northern slavery that still exists TO THIS DAY, good". Like for example the corwin amendment? Or the fact that hundreds of thousands of native Americans allied with the south meanwhile only thousands of natives joined the north
I graduated in 2020 and the second we learned about the cotton gin we were also taught that it caused slavery to surge.
What? I learned about this in school years ago
On day in my engineering class we were talking about slavery and such because we had finished our work and someone brought up how people thought the cotton gin would free slaves and My engineering teacher said “remember when how I said there’s always something you have to loose something when gaining something in engineering? How you always have a trade off in mechanical advantage? Same applies to society, not a single invention has made someone’s life better without also in some way making someone else’s worse”
I have also wondered what would have happened if someone would have invented a machine to do the harvesting at around the same time.
Thanks guys for making such a great video. The history books almost never talk that deep about Eli Whitney that much or go I to his work in firearms. He and his factory complex 'Whitneyville' pioneered the interchangeable parts that would go on to support the later industrial revolution of the later half of the 19th century and our very own modern day. He also made more than that initiall 10000 muskets. He would go on to make more for the US government, picking up the slack of the arsenal systems while developing other designs for the civilian market. His company wouldn't go out of business until I believe the 1880s.
I wonder, in a Parellel Universe where EW started his own company, buying cotton cheaper as it was with seeds in it, how things would have panned out...
Funnily enough, interchangeable parts and industrialization helped the north crush the south in the rebellion purge.
I remember seeing a replica at the Dallas Fair. Thought how cool but then I thought that means they can plant more
When my Abuelo came to the u.s in 1957 he told me he worked in Cotton fields for about 7 years
it's oddly refreshing to hear someone be up front about what slavery was really like....
Yeah in a small part of America. That's was ended.
Nigeria sold it's self
@@BREAKCORE-DISSOCIATEyeah ok. Then you'll say, slavery was everywhere, but no matter where it was, American chattel slavery is unique. Race based slavsry didn't exost and neither did racism, until.
..
@@johnallenbailey1103😂 LMAO!! Reeecism didn't exist until the American sl ve trade?!! 😅😂🤣🤪
@roringusanda2837 you read that right. You should go do some research. You ever heard of Bacon's Rebellion? I love when idiots laugh at facts. It's extremely funny.
Good to see everyone learned a lesson from this moment in history and we have not repeated one of these errors for the last 150 years!
lesson is if you write a program to make your job more efficient never tell the boss.
I actually own a cotton gin I had gotten the functioning system (though I had to replace a lot of the wooden structure) it was from a farm auction. After some rust removal and grease it works like a charm. Though I wish I had some cotton to test it. Hard to believe that such a device can be named the start of such massive and monumental events.
I really want an episode 2 now, I wanna hear the rest of the story, especially with the sick art
Part 2 would just be the civil war
@@jokehu7115 hell yeah let's have a civil war series to make all the weirdo confederates leave
Look up oversimplified history.
Thats basically anything in a school book so i guess were set!
Making bad people rich is never a good idea
This
They are just answering for demand with supply, nothing bad
@@timavoievodin3255 Damn dude how can you be that blind
@@timavoievodin3255 Capitalism inevitably puts profits above human lives
@@laurenwright5540 i am not blind. Actually idea that by working for yourself you help enrich whole society is very simple
The thing to note is that innovation does make the world a better place on average. But because we live in a system where wealth and power naturally concentrates in fewer and fewer people instead of benefiting everyone, that average gain doesn't translate to a gain for the average person. It's not the fault of innovation, but of the system. So, you know, don't direct your anger at the wrong thing.
That is not really true, as you can see, that the average wealth in the world has risen, but the richest people on earth are not really richer than the richest people in the past. They might have more money, but the money they own is less worth than the money in the past.
If you then wonder why the wealth of the middle class and lower class is sinking in America and some other western countries, then you have just look at the third world countries and China, because the manufacturing industries are moving their production into countries, where they have to pay lower wages, less bürocratic hurdles, and taxes, which in turn increases the average wealth of those countries.
@@felixjohnsens3201 thanks for simple explanation why capitalism is good
@@timavoievodin3255 capitalism was the very system which made slavery so profitable and still does.
the so called "progress" of capitalism is never seen by the masses who work and die in squalor for the profits of the elite.
The wealth of the US and Europe does not come from any innovation or industriousness but from the outright robbery of resources from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, to this day Africa only actually controls a fraction of its natural resources
Why blame capitalism when we can scapegoat science and engineering
Tell that to the slaves.
You are a gem 💎! One of my Grade 9 students introduced me to your channel years ago. I ended up flavouring my all my history classes, from Grade 7 to 11, with Extra History. They were all absolutely delighted!!!
The materials for clean energy tech comes from countries that oppress workers who harvest the raw materials.
That's sadly the case for a lot of supply lines for goods throughout history and into the modern era. Bananas have a very bloody history in South America.
You explained this better in ten minutes than four years of high school ever did.
thats on purpouse.
neat work, always good to learn this.
Back on elementary school I did a class report on Eli Whitney and his invention.
In the wood shop part of school teachers even helped me make a prop Cotten gin.
This was back in 1998, or 1999.
I would love some sort of American Civil War series-something like the Great Northern War series made a while back
Seconded
Yes! Although they should make an effort to include the Lincoln Assassination in the series (including information about JWB, his band of conspirators, the kidnapping plot, the assassination plot, the manhunt for JWB and his band of conspirators, and the military trial that came after). We need to know more details of the event other than scratching the surface with the narrative of "JWB did the dirty deed because he was a Confederate sympathizer." True, that's what JWB was. But there's much more to the Lincoln Assassination than just that. I say this because a few years ago, I was in DC and got to visit Ford's Theater (and the Peterson boarding house across the street, which was where Lincoln died; standing in that very room was a somber experience) and learned quite a lot about JWB, his co-conspirators, etc.
@@M.E.ANDHistory That would be amazing
How painfully ironic
Alright, this very quickly has become my favorite Extra history video. Thank you for all the excellent work you guys do!
Amazing video!! I also wanted to add that whoever drew the thumbnail did a fantastic job!! Great detail! 🤘
This video is a perfect example of “the road to hell is paved in good intentions”
Plantation owners: I'm going to do what is called a pro gamer move
The cotton gin sounds a lot like computers, or cars, or any other invention that supposedly makes things easier but can never keep up with infinite demand.
That is how the world works... Everyone wants to get richer, with little regard to the consequences for others
Maybe we ought to do something about that.
That's why we need a fair system where no one can just steal someone else's labor.
@@TheVoiceOfReason93 The only way to "do something about that" is by using force with lots and lots of imperialism. And if that's the option, then you're looking at massive opposition.
@@8is A "fair" system which just so happens to have the worst record of creating the worst oligarchies in human history with absolute power and human rights abuses. People like that get hung and guillotined, at best.
@@stephenjenkins7971 Are you referring to the American Civil War or just how the world works in general?
I'm so glad that art style is back
Great video, especially the conclusion
You gotta love just how tall the Lincoln design is
Yes! Quite accurate, that design!
I should also point out that rising cotton demand also pushed Southern plantation owners into using systems of coercion, with some incentives, to get more and more work out of their slaves the result was that the productivity of slaves increased significantly prior to the Civil War. Although incentives played a part the major push came from coercion, involving whippings, beatings etc., along with threats of family separation to produce workers who among other things picked cotton very fast and of course also pushing most adult slaves into primary production activities. All of which resulted in significant profits for slave owners. The result was that the 1850s were a golden age of massive prosperity for slave owners and slave prices increased dramatically.
The election of Lincoln in 1860 posed the problem that he just might do something that would reduce the income and wealth of the slave owners. Certainly in the 1850s and earlier slave owners had been fighting very hard to erase, remove any threat to their slave wealth. Thus confining slavery, restricting its expansion, the very existence of Abolitionism, in fact anti-slavery in general, i.e., any sort of verbal condemnation threatened that wealth. The existence of fugitive slaves, anything less than fanatical enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act along with anything less than support for slavery threatened that wealth in that view.
In 1860 the conventional attitude in the South among most people was slavery was just fine and dandy and it should be perpetuated well into the future if not forever, because it was the source of wealth and status. (Note in 1860 at least 35% of the total wealth of the South was in the "value" of the slave population and in the Confederacy it was almost certainly over 45%.)
There was very little willingness to part with all that wealth.
I love your animations :)
8:08 Ey! Scott!
8:56 Can't be always in part with that Pole XD
Beautifully insightful thank you very much for the informative video
I learned a lot from this
Hearing Matt Krol say "Westborough, Massachusetts" gave me such a strange happy feeling because I'm from that area
Really good video thumbnail with the bloody cracked up hands.
Feeding poor people the delusion they might be rich has been a tool for the rich to keep the poor in their place for centuries.
Wow, really early for this episode. Love this!
"half the millionaires lived in Mississippi"
Now it's one of the poorest crime-ridden states. Plus one of the most racist if not the most.
Poorest; yes. But several cities (Chicago, Detroit, St Louis, etc.) have higher murder rates.
@@jonnunn4196 Im never mentioned murder rates. I dhnnno where got that from?
@@yishaqdavid2029 probably a Mississippian.
@@jonnunn4196 The deaths per person ate still highers in rural areas. The only reason why cities have higher numbers of deaths is due to having a large population, opposed to the small population of a countryside.
Have you ever been to Mississippi?
genius simple genius comparing the gin to any of the modern technology we have now really is the most apt comparison you could make
Love your work brother, but Natchez is pronounced "NAAT-CHEZ" not "NOT-CHEZ." (Long "A" sound there that you're missing there.)
- Longtime Mississippi resident.
I was kinda hoping that they'd make a series about things like this
This video just had me dripping a tear from my eye this entire video these transgressions against my people 💧
Out of every UA-cam history channel I follow, you guys are one of the few who lived up to their promises last year. It’s amazing!
I think I big thing missed in this video is who was buying the cotton. International trade costs a lot of money and with each country imposing tariffs the south was selling most of their goods to England for higher profits than to the north. A huge factor to the war was the industrial north pushing legislation that imposed more tariffs on cotton to England trying to force the south to exclusively sell the cotton to the north at less of a profit.
I've a white friend whose mother lived in Mississippi and left him a oil painting she did of "happy" slaves dancing in front of their shacks after dark. She was under the belief they had a better life being slaves picking cotton and working the plantation than they otherwise would have had in Africa. It was beneficial for all involved. My friend asked me as a Black person what I thought. I thought the cultural divide was so stunningly vast his mother couldn't understand it unless she lived as a member of the slave community. Even Jesus lived among us to identify with our challenges... He left the Big House to live in the shacks.
The hauntingly beautiful way this video has aged....whew.
"There are no solutions - only trade-offs." - Thomas Sowell
I would LOVE to see a series on the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire.
Do a video on "Sultanate of women" its highly interesting
Another thing most people don't realize: sure Eli Whitney's cotton gin was hand powered, but most cotton guns that were used were gigantic and powered by horses or small motors when they came about.
"promise that you too might own slaves someday".
Ah, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The promise of the "American dream". This is how the rich avoid taxation and get poor and middle class people to uphold that - at their cost, which in turn, among other factors, pretty much guarantees that they aren't going to become rich...
The rich pay a lot more taxes compared to poor in the US than in a lot of other countries. In Sweden for example, more of the taxes are provided by poorer individuals because the poor holds more taxable money. You can't actually tax the super-rich because their money exists as stock in massive companies. If you tax the companies, they will be forced to simply forward that cost down the supply change to eventually the consumers. Because Sweden has higher taxes overall, this forces Sweden to tax everyone more equally, rich and poor alike. The US has actually a really progressive tax system compared to other well-developed countries.
@Aditya Chavarkar Yeah, we used to tax them more because there was nowhere for them to fucking go, genius. The world was a smoking crater after WW2. Now? There's millions of places for them to run off to.
Fantastic episode. What a tragic character Eli Whitney seems to be.
A free market with slavery can hardly be called a free market since the labor market is a very big part of the overall market
thats what is was saying
Alot of the use of the word “Market’
Well a market that allows those who can to take or aquier slaves certainly is free from "nasty" labor protection laws and corresponding *goverment oversight*. You would be amazed for how many people no goverment oversight is the be all end all of a free market.
@@oida10000 Not really, especially if government institutions support the slavery of people
@yossarian It's just about who you define as an individual of the market. It's only free-market capitalism if every individual is free.
The thing about Eli inventing interchangeable musket parts. That is factually wrong. Eli never managed to achieve the technology. He merely promised it while on a contract for 15,000 muskets i believe. He kept delaying the contract saying that he needed to "perfect the technology". In the end he never achieved it, it was done way later by 3 Factory owners (for the life of me i can't find their names).
Nice video. Thanks
The cotton gin, great leap in tech and a great leap back for the end of slavery
All we need now is a series on the Us Civilwar
Agreed. But should they cover the Lincoln Assassination, they need to not scratch the surface by using the brief and repetitive narrative of "JWB did the dirty deed because he was a Confederate sympathizer." True, JWB was that. But they should also mention that JWB did not just intend to kill Lincoln. He also wanted to kill VP Andrew Johnson, SOS (Secretary of State) William Seward, and General Ulysses S. Grant.
Just go to oversimplified lol
They're interesting, but I like EC more. Better art (not to mention great humor and little-known facts).
@@roxylius7550 Id prefer extra historys story telling
@@MogulMogul they are both good in a different way
1:45 woops, West Virginia split off after the Civil War, was still a part of Virginia at this point. Also modern maps at 5:21 and 7:00, most of the western states weren't states yet and didn't have those borders
It's ok, it's about as accurate as them implying non-slave owning whites were tricked or "dragged" into secession.
Being finnish I completely missed that gin = jenny. Those words sound nothing alike!
So I thought this to be a story of an alcoholic drink distilled from cotton seed and got super excited...
gin in this context is short for engine
... sans en and e.
@@suddenllybah Ah. Makes sense!
I've only heard it called Jenny so that connection was lost.
This story remings me of Alfred Nobel, who was so afraid that his invention will be used for war and destruction that he created the Nobel-prize
Yeah except Alfred Nobel wasn't a Fraud. Honoré Blanc and Thomas Blanchard invented the actual processes, Whitney faked them to trick the government into giving him the contract and them proceeded to hand make the guns, which is why they were 10 years late and none of them worked.
Even tho Extra Credits tend to hold a high standard when it comes to writing and choice of topic, I would say this one stands out as an especially good video.
"Progress for some often translates to a step back for others, especially in a free market scenario where profits, not justice are the priority" DAMN!
Every time I learn about this in a history class, everybody looks at me like "So Eli, would you also like to revive the institution of slavery?"
My great, greater grandfather was John Whitney and as a child remember hearing Eli and Asa Whitney's names with family and also related to the Vanderbilt's and De vere and King Louie and Marie Antoinette. Crazy how many😮
I love, like absolutely love, that you put the libertarian snake flag in the hands of a southerner. Top tier trolling
Fantastic.
We lived near a cotton field and my mum was able to talk to somebody about letting us pick a few by hand and that being SO MUCH FUN... lol... after that she had us pick the seeds by hand, no comb. Just manual. Thad hurt so bad!
Hey Guys, It's Bread. Hope you're having a good day, Extra Credits team.
Nice work. You guys are awesome.
3x the size of manhattan is impressive until we remember what bill gates has as a private holding
His acrage is only a few percent of the size of modern megafarms in China and Australia (the biggest are larger than the entire country of Israel).
@@sd-ch2cq And?
Its just ok
The A in Natchez is actually pronounced similarly to "at" , at least by locals. Fyi, you should look into natchez history like the devil's punchbowl and the native american mounds. Pretty cool.
This looks like a case of good intentions gone horribly wrong.
there was this other hand-cranked machine that its inventor supposedly thought would reduce casualties of war because only fewer soldiers would be needed to fight battles. the Gatling Gun. guess what happened next.