Here is a sample compostition for practising writing an exposition by comparison and contrast. Read the article carefully and write your own composition.

The South Before and After the Cotton Gin

 

Life in the southern United States changed forever after Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793. This new machine dramatically increased the amount of cotton produced. The slow and difficult job of separating the cotton seeds from the fluffy cotton fiber became quicker and easier using the cotton gin. (The introduction outlines the main points that will be compared and contrasted)During the early 1800s, the amount of land used to grow cotton increased. As a result, plantation owners and other farmers could make good profits from cotton crops. This change had a huge impact on life in the South, including farming and slavery.

 

Before (clue word highlights likenesses and differences) the cotton gin was invented, the South was a farming society. Most farms were small and supported one family. The South also had many plantations. A plantation is a large amount of one crop. This crop is then sold to make money for the plantation owner. (Body paragraph near the beginning of the article describe life before the invention.)

 

The North was also mainly a farming society. Many people lived on small, family farms. They grew crops for their own families to eat. They would sell any extra they grow. But there were no plantation in the North. The northern climate and land were not right for growing the same types of crops that were grown in the South.

 

In the early 1800s, the Industrial Revolution began in Europe. Factories were built, and people moved from rural areas to cities to find work. One main industry in England was textiles, or making cloth. The textile mills needed large amounts of cotton. Cotton could not be grown in England, so the mills got it from places such as India, the West Indies, and countries in Africa.

 

Before the cotton gin, the south did not produce enough cotton at low enough price for the English textile mills to buy. Farm workers, who were mostly slaves, cleaned the cotton by pulling the seeds and the fluffy cotton fibers apart by hand. This task took a long time, so only a little cotton was produced.

 

Most of the farm workers on the plantations were slaves. Slaves did not receive money or rewards for the labor. Slaves were treated like property and had no rights. Slaves were bought and sold by their owners. They could not leave a plantation without permission, and they were not allowed to learn how to read or write. Slave families could be broken up. Slaves provided the labor needed on the plantations at little cost to the plantation owners.

 

Before the cotton gin was invented, Southern plantations produced crops such as rice, tobacco, and indigo, which is a plant used for dyeing cloth. These crops needed certain conditions to grow, such as warm weather and wet or swampy land. The eastern part of the south provided these conditions, so slavery was mostly limited to these few states.

 

After (clue word highlights likenesses and differences) the cotton gin was invented, the South came to rely more on cotton and became an even stronger farming society. Much of the money made from cotton was invested back into buying more land to grow even more cotton. (Body paragraphs that come later in article describe life after the invention.)

 

During the early 1800s, the North began developing industries. Many people in the north stopped farming and moved to the cities to work in the new industries. Textile mills turned some of the cotton from the South into cotton cloth. By the 1850s, 72 percent of America’s manufacturing was located in the northeast. The south did not develop industry at this time. The cotton gin changed the southern economy. During the early 1800s, many existing plantations began growing cotton, and people began moving west. New land was added to the South and new cotton plantations were set up in states such as Louisiana and Texas.

 

Plantation owners saw the cotton gin as a way to make money. This new machine could quickly remove seeds as much cotton in one day as 50 slaves could produce much more cotton and sell it textile mills in the northeast and in England. These mills produced large amounts of cotton cloth. As a result, cotton cloth became the cheapest and most widely used textile in the world.

 

While the cotton gin greatly reduced the labor of cleaning the cotton, it increased the need for people to plant and pick the cotton. Therefore, as the number and size of plantations grew, so did the number and size of slaves. For every 100 acres (40.47 hectares) of land planted with cotton, 10 to 20 slaves were needed. New plantations were also set up farther west, and slaves were sent to work on them. In 1800, there were fewer than one million slaves in America, but by 1850, there were three million.

 

Many people in the south believed slavery was necessary to the South’s economy. However, many people in the North began to feel strongly that slavery was unjust. These differences of opinion were one of the main causes of the Civil War. In this war, the North fought against the south in part to win freedom for slaves.

 

Comparing the South before and after the invention of the cotton gin shows how one machine can affect the lives of many people. Before the cotton gin was invented, landowners of the South were not very wealthy. There were fewer slaves, and less cotton was produced.

 

After the cotton gin was invented, more cotton could be produced at a faster rate. This increased the wealth of the landowners in the South and meant that many more slaves would be forced to work in unfair conditions. The development of agriculture in the south and industry in the North led to differences in opinions about the fairness of slavery.

 

The invention of the cotton gin affected thousands of people ---- from landowners and slaves to mill workers in the North. The cotton gin not only changed life in the southern United States, it changed the course of American history. (Conclusion)

(By Cameron McRae Peking University Press 2005)