Cotton became King of the South.
The supposed economic necessity of slave labor led great men to defend slavery, and politics in the South became largely the defense of slavery against the aggression, real or fancied, of the free North.

The rift between the sections became a chasm.

Then came the War of Secession.
Though Miller was dead, Whitney carried on the fight for his rights in Georgia.

His difficulties were increased by a patent which the Government at Philadelphia issued in May, 1796, to Hogden Holmes, a mechanic of Augusta, for an improvement in the cotton gin.

The Holmes machines were soon in common use, and it was against the users of these that many of the suits for infringement were brought.