Final answer:
Cotton notably contributed to technological innovation through the cotton gin's invention, but also entrenched the use of slave labor in the Southern economy, impeding social equality and environmental sustainability.
Step-by-step explanation:
Cotton was a driving force behind technological innovation during the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution in both the United States and Great Britain. Growth in cotton production was linked to the expansion of the slave labor force in the Southern United States, and the economic success of cotton had a significant impact on societal structures, further entrenching slavery as an institution and solidifying the South's economic dependence on this single crop. While cotton helped to propel technological advancements, particularly with the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, which made the processing of cotton much more efficient, it also contributed to the continuation and expansion of slavery, thereby making social equality and environmental sustainability far less attainable during this era.