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The timeline can be navigated with the “Scroll Left” and “Scroll Right” buttons or by dragging the pointer to a date on the timeline waveform (located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile). To filter by a particular topic and see a smaller section of the data, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. Hover over the abbreviated filter tags in the blue boxes to see the complete name of the filter, or click a filter to display all the data with this tag. If you want to take a deeper dive into a specific topic by viewing a narrative essay page and a curated timeline, click on “Stories.”

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An elderly Black man stands beside a cotton mill, holding a tool. Cotton falls from one machinery into another.
A Black laborer works at a cotton gin.

The invention of the cotton gin.

1794

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A Black laborer works at a cotton gin.

The increased profits gained through this new agricultural development help spread the cultivation of cotton to the Deep South and Southwestern states. This leads to the need for more laborers, raising the demand for enslaved Black people and leading to the rise of a conservative Southern political order.