Eli Whitney solved a major problem that the cotton pickers and the plantation owners had with cotton.

Hand picking cotton in the South was an extremely laborious endeavor that required hours to bring one bale of raw cotton to the market.

The cotton had to be picked by hand then cleaned of all the by-products that the market would not allow in the finished cotton product.

The average cotton-plantation had around 50 slaves picking all day then cleaning well into the night. The profits that the plantation owners were missing out on were monumental. They needed a faster way, a better way.

What the man from Westboro did was transform the way cotton is cleaned or gleaned actually, making the entire process from field to market, fast and lucrative. One would think that this great invention, in a land where cotton was king, would have retired the paunchy inventor but this was not the case. Being a great inventor in now way makes one a savvy businessman.

Engraving of Eli Whitney the inventor of the Cotton Gin

Engraving of Eli Whitney the inventor of the Cotton Gin

He was born in Westboro; Massachusetts in the spring of 1765, His father, a tinkerer of sorts had a workshop where young Eli learned the art and science of making things. As a boy he learned rather quickly and was in no time creating little items out of metal and wood that simply amazed his father and mother. Realizing that this boy was special, the Whitney’s shipped Eli off to the high seas to stake his fame and fortune.

Little did they know just how famous and wealthy their young son would become. Eli and his cotton gin coupled with his inventions for hastening gun production made him one of the most well-respected and genuine masters of the industrial world.

Whitney died in January 1825. The man that had the greatest industrial impact for the United States was gone.