Before the invention of the cotton gin, a slave could clean roughly one pound of short cotton per day. The first cotton gin, by contrast, could clean several pounds per day.

The cotton gin revolutionized the cotton industry by allowing for faster and more efficient cleaning of cotton, increasing from roughly 1 pound per day to several pounds per day.

Explanation:

The invention of the cotton gin significantly revolutionized the cotton industry by accelerating the process of separating the cotton fibers from the seeds. Prior to this invention, a slave could clean roughly 1 pound of cotton per day. Contrastingly, the first cotton gin could clean several pounds of cotton per day. This was a significant improvement and heavily contributed to the growth of cotton production, particularly in the South, because the cotton gin made the process of cleaning cotton far more efficient.

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