The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 is typically presented as a straightforward story of technological progress, but in the Mississippi Delta, this single machine set in motion a cascade of destruction that dismantled ancient Indigenous civilizations and reshaped the landscape beyond recognition. The gin made short-staple cotton enormously profitable, and the rush to plant it across the Deep South triggered one of the most devastating episodes of land theft, cultural destruction, and environmental transformation in American history. Before the cotton boom, the Mississippi region was home to Indigenous nations whose roots in the land stretched back thousands of years. The Choctaw, Chickasaw, and other peoples had built sophisticated societies adapted to the river's ecology, with agricultural practices, trade networks, and political structures th ...