In 1794, Eli Whitney Jr. received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America’s cotton industry. #EliWhitney
Eli Whitney could also be called the “Father of the Civil War”:
Whitney’s gin revolutionized the cotton industry in the United States, but also led to the growth of slavery in the American South. Whitney’s gin made cotton farming more profitable, so plantation owners expanded their plantations and used more slaves to pick the cotton. Whitney never invented a machine to harvest cotton, it still had to be picked by hand. The invention has thus been identified as an inadvertent contributing factor to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Wikipedia |
