This is the story of an invention that changed the world.

This is the story of an invention that changed the world. Imagine a machine that could cut 10 hours of work down to one. A machine so efficient that it would free up people to do other things, kind of like the personal computer. But the machine I'm going to tell you about did none of this. In fact, it accomplished just the opposite. In the late 1700s, just as America was getting on its feet as a republic under the new U.S Constitution, slavery was a tragic American fact of life.