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Overview | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | Credits |
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The 18th Century
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© Yale University Library, 2008
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Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
This member of the Class of 1792, invented the mechanism
that gave the South its King, cotton. While on the plantation of Nathanael
Greene's widow in Georgia, Whitney designed the cotton gin which made the
spread of slavery and cotton profitable throughout the Southeast. Upon returning
to New Haven and finding it difficult to obtain sole rights to the invention
of the cotton gin, he began the mass production of guns for the Federal
Government. It was this business venture that made Whitney a wealthy man,
and helped instigate the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
Eli Whitney (1765-1825) b. in Westborough, Massachusetts, Class of 1792
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