Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts, on December 8, 1765. He was the oldest child of Eli Whitney and Elizabeth Fay. He was a genius as a very young child and also worked on repairing furniture in his father’s workshop. At age 12, Eli Whitney made a violin. Before the Revolutionary War began he started his own business selling nails, and after the war he started another business selling hatpins and walking sticks. He didn’t go to college at first but instead worked as a farm laborer and school teacher to save his money. Later he attended Yale College and was tutored by Rev. Elizur Goodrich in 1792 to study law and he graduated when he was 28 years old. Instead of studying law, Eli Whitney thought about making the south rich along with the inventor. 
The cloth industry imported from India was popular while the British tried to make a cloth industry at their home in the 1600’s (World History: Connections To Today). Eli Whitney helped these workers out by creating a cotton gin during the late 1700’s in a workshop given him by Catherine Greene. Eli Whitney’s first demonstration was to some of Catherine Greene’s neighbors who reacted as if it was an immediate success, and in 1 hour he tested it and boasted of it. The cotton gin was cranked by hand and bigger ones were driven by a horse or by water. The cotton gin helped remove the seeds from the cotton which became a profitable product for the South.The ingredients to make up the cotton gin were: 1.) a hopper is where you insert the cotton, 2.) a grate that lets the cotton pull through while the seeds stay behind because they are too big that they don’t fit through the mesh, 3.) a cylinder where the cotton is pulled through, and 4.) a 
brush that pulls the cotton out of the cotton gin. Most people think that the cotton gin would reduce the need of slaves but it didn’t because they had to still pick the cotton and grow it. Before the cotton gin was invented, the slaves could only clean 1 pound a day no matter what conditions they were under. However, the cotton gin made it possible for the slaves to clean 50 pounds a day. Mass production was the result of the cotton gin, and allowed slavery to become continuous.
References:
1.) Outman, James L. Industrial Revolution Biographies. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2003.
2.) Ellis, Elisabeth & Esler, Anthony. (2005). World History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
4.) Steward, Robin. “The History of the Cotton Gin.” 2002. Pagewise. 8 November 2007 <sc.essortment.com/cottongin_rciv.htm>.
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