Industry vs Manpower

Eli Whitney won his cotton gin patent on March 14, 1794 and made little from it. Planters copied the machine freely, and the patent was not validated until 1807, with only a year left to run. Hodgen Holmes patented a saw-toothed improvement in 1796, which courts later nullified, naming Whitney the inventor. Whitney hoped the gin would reduce labor, but profit drove planters to buy more enslaved people: the enslaved population grew from about 700,000 in 1790 to about 3.2 million in 1850, while cotton rose from 750,000 bales in 1830 to 2.85 million in 1850.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 3.7 mi
  The parish church at the heart of the Cane River Creoles of color, begun by Augustin Metoyer on his family's land and still holding Mass for the community that grew from Marie Thérèse Coincoin's children.
• Melrose Plantation — 3.9 mi
  The Cane River estate built on land granted to Louis Metoyer, son of Marie Thérèse Coincoin, with the Yucca House and African House, later an artists' retreat; guided tours Thursday to Sunday.
• Kisatchie National Forest: Longleaf Vista — 6.0 mi
  A free ridge-top overlook and 1.5-mile loop above the 8,700-acre Kisatchie Hills Wilderness on the Longleaf Trail Scenic Byway, in the forest Caroline Dormon helped win in 1930.
• Cane River Creole National Historical Park — 8.8 mi
  Oakland and Magnolia, two Cane River cotton plantations kept as they stood, told through the enslaved families who worked them, the 1864 and 1804 freedom seekers and the tenant farmers who stayed into the 1960s.

More markers nearby

• The Battle of Cloutierville — steps away
• The Cost of Cotton — steps away
• Escaped! Freedom Seekers in 1804 — steps away
• Escaped! Freedom Seekers in 1863 — steps away