How Did Eli Whitney Change The World

Words: 790

Pages: 4

Open Document

1793 the year some historians say changed the world. Eli Whitney was a young Yale University graduate; and, like many men of his time was unsure what the future held for him. He was offered a tutor position for a very accredited family and instead turned it down. He was offered an invitation to come visit with a friend, Mrs. Catherine Green. Mrs. Green was the widow of an American revolutionary war general, and the owner of Mulberry Grove Plantation near Savannah, GA. During his stay at the cotton growing plantation, he witnessed firsthand the hard labor that went into cotton processing, as well as the struggle cotton farmers went through to earn a living.
Cotton processing is very hard and tedious, and time consuming work. Separating the fibers from the plant is extremely difficult. If you press down to hard you will get oils all over the actual fibers rendering the cotton unusable. Cotton was an easy crop to …show more content…
Whitney and he partner Miller decided not to patent the cotton gin right away, and instead they wanted to sell it to as many farmers as they could. This plan soon failed. The farmers didn’t like how much Whitney and Miller were pricing the product at. This caused them to start making their own and saying it was new invention. The reason they believed this was ok, the gin the Whitney was selling was too expensive and he didn’t patent the invention so it wasn’t illegal. As soon as Whitney and Miller caught on, they tried to sue the farmers but because of them saying the product was “new” they didn’t win any law suit until 1800, they said it was due to there being a loop hole in the patent laws. Between legal fees and trying to make a profit for themselves, they decided in 1802 to sell the cotton gin patent to South Carolina for $50,000. South Carolina didn’t pay them right away and because Whitney needed the money he then decided to sell it North Carolina and

How Did Eli Whitney Change The World

child Eli whitney was fascinated with machines and technology he wanted to find out how they work by taking them apart and putting them back together. He was born on on December 8 1765 and grew up on a small farm during the revolutionary war building machines such as a machine that makes nails he would also create canes, and ladies hat pins when he found out he was good at building machines he found an opportunity. I will be going into depth of Eli Whitney’s life and what great things he did to change…

Words 597 - Pages 3

Eli Whitney's Influence On American History

Eli Whitney was born on December 8,1765 in Westborough,Massachusetts. In 1792,after graduating from Yale in New England, before heading south, Whitney had to pay all his debts to Yale. When all his debts were paid Whitney headed south. Eli Whitney was planning to work as a private tutor but he had accepted an invitation to work as an inventor instead. Eli was a very intelligent young man who had the mind to invent. Witney wanted to invent but he didn't know what to invent. According to Joan Brodsky…

Words 241 - Pages 1

Important Events In The 1700's Essay

There were also many other events that help to carve out what the U.S. was and what it stood for. One of these things was the tale of the great inventor, Eli Whitney and how he change the cotton industry, henceforth changing the issue about slavery, and revolutionizing the American industry with his idea of interchangeable parts. Eli Whitney was quite the inventor. From a young age, he was…

Words 1347 - Pages 6

Cotton Gin Abolition

Summary Slavery was dwindling to an end. The South didn’t feel the need to have so many slaves, until the Cotton Gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1794. This single invention transformed America in the world’s leading exporter of cotton. The Cotton Gin was a device that would allow the process of removing spiky cotton seeds from the actual product much faster. The device worked by adding the cotton with the seeds to the device. Then as it went through the machine, the seeds would be sifted from…

Words 2161 - Pages 9

Essay on Ch. 14 Review

and take over America that gave birth to many prefudices against immigrants. Samuel Slater “Father of American Industry”. Escaped Britain with memorized factory machinery blueprints and brought the factory system over to America. Eli Whitney/Cotton Gin Eli Whitney created the Cotton Gin that allowed workers to pick cotton at a much faster rate than by hand. Renewed the lease on slavery and anchored the agrarian economy of the South for many years. Elias Howe Invented the sewing machine that…

Words 2681 - Pages 11

World Civ Final Paper (3 prompt questions included)

Society thanks to the Industrial Revolution. Tim Yim Development through Industrialization has benefitted us as a community and a nation. 1.Reflecting on the content covered in the course, how have your views about history changes throughout the semester? Throughout this course, we have taken many different viewpoints of various people and areas. This has allowed me to consider the affects of all types of people when considering certain historically related…

Words 2117 - Pages 9

The Cotton Gin: Causes And Effects

The Causes and Effects of the Cotton Gin “I have now taken a serious task upon myself and I fear a greater one that is in the power of any man to perform in the given time-but it is too late to go back,”- Eli Whitney. The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 and created because of the decline in the tobacco and indigo industries. Tobacco and indigo plants were not suitable for farming because they caused soil exhaustion and took many nutrients out of the soil, due to this farmers had no…

Words 1631 - Pages 7

London Times Essay

Elizabeth Escobedo, World History Period 3 The London Times What a roller coaster it has been! Recently everyone has been going through these crazy changes. We are at the end of a amazing period of time named “The Industrial Revolution”. This has been a period of time in with the locomotive has came to be known and we have used many other great inventions like the cotton gin to facilitate our lifes. We have also learned how better use our natural resources like coal and others to…

Words 583 - Pages 3

Industrial Revolution Changes

in the morning, and begins to work his farm after breakfast. For him, this is what he did daily to get food, but he will soon be able to do much more. The Industrial Revolution was a time of change in the economy all around the world. This Revolution started in England due to many factors, including the British Empire. As Joseph Montagna says that the “Industrial Revolution was a period in which fundamental changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economic policies…

Words 713 - Pages 3

How Did The Slave Trade Affect Nigeria

eighteenth century, the British were the ones who succeeded in doing so. Through all the pain and the turmoil the slaves had to suffer through, the British made millions of English pounds. After this excitement over sugar died down a little, in 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin thus causing an excitement over cotton. This lead to more Africans to be taken from their homelands to America to work on cotton plantations. From 1789 to 1860, the number of slaves working on cotton plantations grew from…

Words 934 - Pages 4