The United States would probably be very similar today if the cotton gin wasn’t invented. There are a few reasons for this. Some people believe that if the cotton gin wasn’t invented, slavery would have ended. However, it is quite possible that an invention similar to the cotton gin would have been developed at some time in the future. Americans have always been very involved in developing new ideas that advance society. Inventions like the lights bulb, mechanical reaper, and the steel-tipped plow are examples. There is no reason to believe that wouldn’t have happened with cotton growing.
Another reason for saying things wouldn’t be that different is that attitudes of white southerners probably would have remained the same toward American-Americans. Attitudes are hard to change. It takes many years to change attitudes. Even when slavery ended, many southerners worked very hard to limit the freedoms and rights African-Americans had gained. The Ku Klux Klan developed to threaten and intimidate African Americans. Poll taxes and literacy tests were established to keep African-Americans from voting. Many white southerners believed their race was superior, and they weren’t going to let that attitude go without resistance. When attempts to end racial segregation moved to the North in the 1960s and 1970s, white northerners displayed a similar reaction to white southerners. They fought school desegregation cases and moved to suburbs that were mostly, if not all, white. It is very difficult to change attitudes that have existed for centuries.
As a result, the United States would probably be the same today if the cotton gin hadn’t been invented.
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