The invention of the cotton engine (also known as the cotton gin) by Eli Whitney is perhaps one of the most tangible outcomes of the American industrialization spirit of the 18th century 1.

On June 20, 1793, Eli Whitney, who had graduated from Yale the previous year, wrote to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, requesting a patent for his new invention, the cotton gin. The gin ...

If you went to elementary school in the United States, you no doubt learned about Eli Whitney’s cotton gin as an example of how the industrial revolution took previously manual processes and ...

With the gin (short for engine), raw cotton could be quickly cleaned; Suddenly cotton became a profitable crop, transforming the southern economy and changing the dynamics of slavery. The first ...