Eli Whitney, born December 8, 1765, in Massachusetts, revolutionized American agriculture with his 1794 invention of the cotton gin, a machine that removed seeds from cotton far faster than hand labor and transformed cotton into the nation’s leading export by the mid-1800s. A naturally gifted mechanic who once built a nail forge and violin, Whitney studied at Yale before moving to Georgia, where he learned of the difficulties farmers faced in cleaning cotton and set aside his law plans to solve the problem. Though his patent was widely pirated and brought little profit, the cotton gin reshaped both Northern industry and Southern agriculture—tragically increasing slavery as demand for cotton grew. Whitney later developed interchangeable musket parts, a breakthrough that advanced American manufacturing and brought him financial success. Remembered  ...