1765-1825

American Inventor

Whitney is credited with inventing the cotton gin. This mechanical device efficiently removed seeds from short-staple cotton bolls, resulting in that type of cotton being grown in more areas of the United States. Although the cotton gin was considered a labor-saving tool, it ironically caused the expansion of slavery in America. While the cotton gin relieved laborers from removing seeds from cotton fibers by hand, it created a demand for more raw cotton, thus increasing the need for workers to pluck the bolls from cotton fields.

Born on December 8, 1765, in Westboro, Massachusetts, Whitney was the son of Eli and Elizabeth Whitney. He financed his education at Yale by making nails and teaching. Graduating in 1792, Whitney accepted a position as a tutor on a Southern plantation. While visiting Catherine Greene (1755-1814), the widow of General Nathanael Greene, at her home Mulberry Grove, near Savannah...