THE LESSON:
California History Social Science Standard:
8.7.1 – Describe the development of the agrarian economy in the South, identify the locations of the cotton-producing states, and discuss the significance of cotton and the cotton gin.
Students will look at a picture of the cotton gin and determine how it works or students will look at an illustration of a cotton gin and describe how the parts work. There is an excellent illustration and direction of the cotton gin in the Glencoe, McGraw-Hill 8th grade textbook, The American Journey, Building a Nation, page 397. There is also some good illustration of cotton gins at the following web sites:
Patent Drawing
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/cotton-gin-patent/activities.html
Here you can see a demonstration of the roller gin:
http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/whole_cloth/u2ei/u2images/act1/rollergin.html
Early Cotton and Cotton Gin History:
http://www.pratthistory.com/Cotton%20Gins.htm
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