gin

Eli Whitney’s cotton gin expanded slavery across the Deep South.

“The purists, they get cranky about this, you know, and say that it’s supposed to be gin and vermouth and that’s all a martini should be.”

With the 1793 invention of the cotton gin—which separated cotton fibers from its seeds with a previously undreamed-of efficiency—America’s plantation economy expanded exponentially and so did its use of slave labor.

He is best known for his invention of the cotton gin, a machine that transformed cotton production, with tragic consequences for workers.

The gin producer said the spirits industry was being "used as a bit of a cash cow for the government".