The cotton gin had a huge impact on the economy of the Southern US before the Civil War. Invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, the cotton gin was a machine that revolutionised the cotton industry by making it much faster and easier to separate cotton fibres from their seeds. This led to a massive increase in cotton production in the Southern US, which in turn led to an increase in the number of slaves needed to work on the plantations. The cotton gin therefore played a major role in the development of the plantation economy in the South, and helped to make it one of the most important economic regions in the United States.