How was cotton gathered on slave plantations?

At the beginning of the 19th century, cotton plantations dominated the agriculture of the Deep South. The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney fostered a more efficient way to harvest cotton. The invention removed seeds from the cotton plants which previously was done inefficiently by hand by slaves on the cotton plantations. The seeding of the cotton was still done by hand, however. The cotton gin would help gather the cotton plants' seeds. The cotton was planted in deep seeding patches anywhere from three to six feet apart. Cotton seeds were planted in April and were ready for harvest as soon as June.