Cotton became and has continued to be the greatest single export of the United States.

In ordinary years its value is greater than the combined value of the three next largest exports.

It is on cotton that the United States has depended for the payment of its trade balance to Europe.
Other momentous results followed on the invention of the cotton gin.

In 1793 slavery seemed a dying institution, North and South.

Conditions of soil and climate made slavery unprofitable in the North.