In 1794, Eli Whitney patented a new kind of cotton gin. His invention, using rotating brushes and teeth to remove the seeds from cotton, was quickly pirated by others. Southern plantation owners ...

What was once the world’s largest cotton gin factory is being renovated into apartments. Enslaved people were used to build the factory, which played a key role in the expansion of slavery ...

When Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492, he discovered cotton growing wild. It wasn’t long before the crop found its way into American soil, with the first known cotton seeds ...