Click image to enlarge. Shown is the J.B. Hain Co. Cotton gin, Sardis, Dallas County. Cotton was Alabama’s principal economic engine before the Civil War, and it continued to play a major role in the state’s agricultural economy well into the twentieth century. Once ubiquitous across the Alabama landscape, the cotton gin served as the economic—and sometimes the social—hub of countless rural communities. But technological changes and the consolidation of gin facilities in the present cotton industry have made most gins obsolete, and in Alabama, as elsewhere, they are disappearing. Most gin buildings remaining today date from the early twentieth century, with a few rare survivors predating 1900. Those retaining original gin equipment are even harder to find.Cotton was Alabama’s principal economic engine before the Civil War, and it continued to play a major role in the state’s agricultural economy well into the twentieth century. Once ubiquitous across the Alabama landscape, the cotton gin served as the economic—and sometimes the social—hub of countless rural communities. But technological changes and the consolidation of gin facilities in the present cotton industry have made most gins obsolete, and in Alabama, as elsewhere, they are disappearing. Most gin buildings remaining today date from the early twentieth century, with a few rare survivors predating 1900. Those retaining original gin equipment are even harder to find.
Th e cotton “gin” (short for “engine”) was designed to separate the cotton fibers from the seed. As cotton production boomed after 1820, gin manufacturing became a key part of early industrialization in the South, most notably with the 1833 founding of Daniel Pratt’s cotton gin factory at Prattville. Pratt’s company grew into the world’s largest gin factory, and in 1899 it merged with six other firms to form what ultimately became the Continental Eagle Corporation. Today, the state’s cotton production continues to decline, and gins are being idled. If the demise of the cotton gin is inevitable, some of these buildings off er exciting opportunities for new use and for preserving a virtual totem of the state’s cotton-rich past.
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