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One major obstacle was about the cotton itself-- the kind that grew in the south was very difficult to clean, and it needed to be done by hand (a tedious job for the slaves). The belief was that any machines that tried to do this task would quickly break, because the seeds would never get removed; rather, they would get stuck in the machinery.

Another obstacle for Whitney was winning over the planters, who did not believe a machine could do the job that the slaves could do. In addition, Whitney had a difficult time finding investors to pay for the research and development of his new invention. The planters also refused to pay for it, and Whitney's company went out of business in 1797. He later tried again, but lost battles over patents on the cotton gin and never made a profit, even though the invention proved as reliable as he had predicted it would.

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13y ago

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