Eli Whitney
At a glance:
- Series: Dictionary of World Biography: The 17th and 18th Centuries
- Categories: Technology, Inventions
- Subcategories: Inventors, Industry, Manufacturing, Factories, Industrial Revolution, Industrialization, Farms, Farming, Rural Life
- Curriculum: American Revolutionary History (1776-1788), American History 1816-1855, American Early National History (1789-1815)
Article abstract: Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, which revolutionized agriculture in the South, also contributed to the nation’s industrial development by founding one of its first manufacturing establishments.
Early Life
When Eli Whitney was born on a farm in Westborough, Massachusetts, on December 8, 1765, his parents, Eli and Elizabeth Fay Whitney, had been married only eleven months. Three other children, Elizabeth, Benjamin, and Josiah, came in such rapid succession that their mother became bedridden and remained so until her death in...
[The entire page is 2028 words long]
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