Seminar+-+Eli+Whitney


 * ELI WHITNEY **

Eli Whitney (December 8, 1765 - January 8, 1825) was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the antebellum South. The cotton gin made short staple cotton into a profitable crop, this led to the strengthening of the economic foundation of slavery in the American South (regardless of whether or not Whitney intended that). Another great invention by Whitney was interchangeable parts which would contribute greatly to the factory system. Whitney himself establish a factory in New Haven in 1789, but despite his great mechanical mind, he lost his profits in legal battles over patent infringement, closed his business and nearly filed for banckrupcy. 

[] Images from our Eli Whitney Seminar, October, 19, 2010