Eli  WHITNEY

1765 Birth
Name: Eli Whitney
Gender: Male
Christening Date:
Christening Place:
Birth Date: 08 Dec 1765
Birthplace: Westborough, Worcester, Massachusetts
Death Date:
Name Note:
Race:
Father's Name: Eli Whitney
Father's Birthplace:
Father's Age:
Mother's Name: Elizabeth
Mother's Birthplace:
Mother's Age:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: I00831-5
System Origin: Massachusetts-EASy
GS Film number: 758488
Reference ID: It2 Pg42

'Massachusetts, Births and Christenings, 1639-1915,' index, FamilySearch (familysearch.org/ pal:/ MM9.1.1/ F4GQ-JMF : accessed 06 Nov 2013), Eli Whitney, 08 Dec 1765.
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Biography
ELI WHITNEY, the inventor of the cotton-gin, was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, December 8, 1765. After his. graduation from. Yale College, he went to Georgia, where he studied law, and lived with the family of the widow of General Nathaniel Greene. At that time the only way known to separate the cotton seed from the fiber was by hand, making it extremely slow and expensive, and for this reason cotton was little cultivated in this country. Mrs. Greene urged the inventive Whitney to devise some means for accomplishing this work by machinery. This he finally succeeded in doing, but he was harassed by, attempts to defraud him by those who had stolen his ideas. He at last formed a partnership with a man named Miller, and they began the manufacture of the machines at. Washington, Georgia, in 1795. The success of his invention was immediate, and the legislature of South Carolina voted the sum of $50,000 for his idea. This sum he had great difficulty in collecting, after years of...Read MORE...


A Biographical Record Of Schuyler County, New York, S. J. Clarke, 1903

1793 - The cotton gin is invented (Eli Whitney, United States)
The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 marked a pivotal moment in the history of American agriculture and the economy. This simple yet revolutionary device mechanized the process of separating cotton fibers from their seeds, a task that was previously done by hand and was extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming.

The Problem Before the Cotton Gin
Before Whitney's invention, separating cotton fibers from seeds was a tedious and inefficient process. Workers could clean only a few pounds of cotton per day, which limited cotton production and made it a less profitable crop. The manual labor required also kept the costs high and the process slow, hindering the expansion of cotton farming, especially in the southern United States.

Eli Whitney's Innovation
Eli Whitney, an American inventor, recognized the need for a more efficient method of processing cotton. He designed a machine that used a combination of hooks and a rotating drum to pull the cotton fibers...Read MORE...


Visit , United States (USA) (American Colonies)

1817 Marriage / Partner
Eli WHITNEY and Henrietta Frances EDWARDS 14 January 1817, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (Westville)

He was 51 years old.

1817 Birth of Child
Frances Edwards WHITNEY was born 13 November 1817, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (Westville)

Eli was 51 years old.

1819 Birth of Child
Elizabeth Fay WHITNEY was born March 1819, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (Westville)

Eli was 53 years old.

1820 Birth of Child
Eli WHITNEY was born 24 November 1820, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (Westville)

Eli was 54 years old.

1821 Birth of Child
Susan Edwards WHITNEY was born December 1821, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (Westville)

Eli was 56 years old.

1823 Death of Child
Susan Edwards WHITNEY died September 1823, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (Westville)

Eli was 57 years old.

1825 Death
8 January 1825
New Haven, Connecticut, USA

He died at the age of 59.

1913 - Misfortunes of Inventors
ELI WHITNEY.—Inventor of the cotton gin
It should have brought him millions, but he tried to control the sale and the impatient planters began to make the machine for themselves and so he lost his profits.

Bit Whitney invented the cotton gin. Whitney, who had great mechanical skill, was a New Englander who went to the south and, on the plantation of General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary fame, saw the slaves separating lint from the cotton seed by hand. Few things that came from the brain of $1,000,000,000. The South may be aald to clothe the world. It takes l,000 or more steamships to transport the cotton which England alone buys from the South each year.

From his invention, which may be classed as one of the ten most important in history, Whitney never got a dollar of profit. Immediately upon the introduction of the gin, dozens of persons pirated the Invention. Whitney tried to protect his legal rights and soon became involved in a lot of lawsuits. Some of them he won...Read MORE...



Morning Express
Buffalo, New York
1913