In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a machine that removed seeds from cotton boll fibers and cleaned the crop faster than could be done by hand. It became popular quickly, and by the early 1800s, more than 50 cotton saw gins were in use in Mecklenburg County. During the early 19th century, cotton was one of the country's most lucrative exports and a valuable cash crop for farmers, especially in the South where growth was concentrated. Samuel Polk, a seasoned subsistence farmer, purchased a 40-saw cotton gin between 1800 and 1806, probably hoping to build wealth by farming cotton. Although the cotton gin reduced the labor needed to clean cotton, farmers and large planters, including Samuel Polk, relied on enslaved people to plant and harvest large volumes of the crop. Tax records show that by 1806, four enslaved people labored on the Polk farm: Violet and Lucy, whom Jane Polk inherited in 1794, and two male farmhands probably purchased around the same time as the cotton gin; they cultivated cotton and performed other labor on the farm.