King Cotton

Georgia The Peach State Established 1788, 4th State

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King Cotton Print this section | E-mail this section In the middle 1700s, slaves were brought to Georgia to work on rice plantations in the areas of Georgia around the coast. Then in 1793, Eli Whitney invented a machine called the cotton gin, which removed seeds from the middle of cotton fibers and made that crop more profitable. Cotton production suddenly exploded. Georgians became a major producer of cotton in the interior of the state, while rice was still produced along the coast.