Eli whitney
...the land had plenty of natural resources, America did not have the manpower or the industry to turn these resources into manufactured products. As a result America had to rely on Europe for most of their manufactured goods. It was clear that the country needed a way to become economically independent. Inventors and craftsmen searched for new ways to build and produce goods. Whitney would help the country in 2 ways: his invention of the cotton gin and later his use of interchangeable parts would boost the American industry by enabling manufacturers to make goods more quickly than before. However good his intentions were, Eli’s gin dramatically increased the demand for slave labor. Not only did plantation owners need more slaves to pick the cotton, they also needed many more to work the gins. Three years before the Gin 43% of the population was enslaved. Thirty years later the n...