Download or read book Inventing the Cotton Gin written by Angela Lakwete and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2005-09-16 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lakwete shows how indentured British, and later enslaved Africans, built and used foot-powered models to process the cotton they grew for export. After Eli Whitney patented his wire-toothed gin, southern mechanics transformed it into the saw gin, offering stiff competition to northern manufacturers.