American Event #2

Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin

Illustration of an early cotton gin

The second event that happened in the US during the Industrial Revolution is Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin. Eli Whitney, an inventor from Massachusetts, created the cotton gin to help industrialize the system of cotton picking and cultivation. The cotton gin was used to separate the usable cotton from the black seeds. This process used to be done by hand, and was extremely time consuming and tedious. Whitney's cotton gin strengthened slavery in the US, because it increased the efficiency of the slaves, and because the cotton could be cleaned quicker, there was a need for more slaves to pick it. The invention of the cotton gin ties right in with the Industrial Revolution because it was invented in 1793, right in the middle of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was about inventions and mechanizing the way things were done, just like the cotton gin.