Final answer:
The exact time it took one person to spin a pound of cotton is not historically documented, but it was a slow and laborious process by hand. The invention of the cotton gin and the mechanization of textile mills dramatically increased cotton production efficiency.
Step-by-step explanation:
The speed at which cotton could be processed varied widely before the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793. Manual separation of seeds from the cotton fibers was a painstakingly slow process. An enslaved laborer could spend an entire day removing seeds from only one pound of cotton by hand.
However, the cotton gin dramatically improved efficiency, allowing for the seeds to be removed from fifty pounds of cotton per day. There is no specific historical record stating the time it would take for one person, spinning one strand at a time, to produce a pound of cotton, but it was a very labor-intensive and slow process compared to the post-cotton gin era.
During the Cotton Revolution, the mechanization of cotton processing and the establishment of factories, such as Samuel Slater's mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, significantly increased the output of cotton goods.
These technological advancements and increases in domestic production capabilities led to the United States producing roughly 68 percent of the world's cotton by the mid-19th century.