Eli Whitney
American inventor (1765-1825) · United States · Scientists · Died at 59
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Something wrong?He built a machine that made cotton wildly profitable - and in doing so locked the economics of American slavery into place for another sixty years.
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Eli Whitney by Samuel Finley Breese Morse 1822_(14739994516).jpg?width=1200)
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Eli Whitney by Samuel Finley Breese Morse 1822FXD
Eli Whitney engraving from 1846 memoir
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Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793, a device that could clean upland short cotton fast enough to turn it into a cash crop across the South. The invention reshaped the region's economy and cemented slavery as its foundation, though Whitney himself spent years losing money in patent lawsuits as others copied the design. After the legal fights drained him, he pivoted to arms manufacturing, securing government contracts to produce muskets for the young United States Army. He kept at that work - making weapons, tinkering with production - until he died in January 1825.
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