Eli+Whitney

"He was remarkable for thinking and acting for himself at the age of ten or twelve years. In whatever he undertook he seemed to have sagacity to perceive probable consequences"- Elizabeth Whitney, referring to her brother Eli Whitney (Green 20). Eli Whitney was a unique person who was liked bu many people in his day. His inventions helped many people and made him known around the community. He was inspired by other inventors and their attempts in creating successful inventions (Finlay). With his incredible achievements you may think he or his family was special, but they were only a normal middle-class family (Green 19). Eli Whitney’s life from being a child to growing up is interesting and definitely shapes him to what he became in the future. Eli Whitney was the oldest of four children which probably made it tougher on him because it means he had the most responsibility (Alter 15). Whitney’s father was a farmer so he was not in a gifted or rich family. His mother died when Whitney was only the age of eleven (Smith). After his mom died in 1777 he went under supervision of a housekeeper until his father remarried in 1779 (Green 19). Since Whitney was a child he was already messing with other’s inventions and checking out how they work. One time he faked being sick to stay home to skip church to mess with his father’s watch. He disassembled his watch to see how it worked and had it all put back together before they came back from church (Alter 15). At the age of twelve young Whitney built his very own violin (Green 20). This was when Whitney started getting into developing his own things. Eli Whitney got his father’s permission to start his own nail-making operation as a fourteen year old. He used his father’s workshop for this and it was profitable for him (Haar). He went to Yale college and graduated as a mechanical tinkerer in 1792 (Haar). After college he was offered a job in South Carolina (Cefrey 7). His teaching job did not work out and was dropped eventually. When Eli Whitney thought of making his inventions the ideas did not just appear in his head usually. His inventions were inspired by other people’s attempts (Finlay). His invention made slave workers job easier, Whitney always treated them with respect (Smith). He actively shaped his public image because of his inventions and other things he did (Finlay). Eli Whitney had made it a far, him being interested as a child was what led him to becoming who he was. Eli Whitney is a man with good personality traits that really show the type of person he is and what he is known for. These traits are shown as early as since he was just a child all the way into him being an adult. For example, as a child he was curious messing around and tampering with things like his dad’s watch (Alter 15). He was an ambitious person with his attempts in building the cotton gin (Smith). Since he was an inventor, one main trait was him being helpful to the community. Eli Whitney helped fix tools in Catherine Greene’s plantation in return for her letting Whitney stay there (Cefrey 8). Another trait that describes Whitney is a problem solver, which goes a bit Whitney's success did not come too easy and that leads to another trait that describes him, a hard worker. When he went to Yale College he had to study hard and graduate, which he did accomplish (Alter 18). His inventions had an impact on the community, which leads to demonstrating two traits. He was an inspiration to the people, his inventions made others want to try inventing their own (Smith). Whitney was also very recognized in the community and had his own town named Whitneyville in Connecticut (Cefrey 16-17). under being helpful as well. His invention helped slaves and farmers have less work with separating the cotton from the stem (Finlay). Furthermore, he displayed the trait of being amusing to people. When he gave his presentation on his interchangeable parts for muskets his audience was amused by his achievement (Haar). Eli Whitney’s success was not a walk in the park or something that just happened overnight, he had some obstacles that he encountered. His mother died when he was a very young age, he was only age eleven (Smith). Losing a parent must have affected him in one way especially since he was only a child. After his mom died he was under supervision of a house keeper for a while so Whitney had to deal with her instead of his mother. His father finally remarried 1779 so Whitney had a step-mom (Green 19). Whitney went to Yale College to become a mechanical tinkerer and the college was not very cheap (Haar). His family was middle-class so he was not rich and he had to convince his parents to let him go to college (Green 19). Yale College was also very difficult so Whitney had to study hard to succeed. After he got out of Yale he had no money from spending it all on college (Alter 16). He was offered a job as a teacher and he started to work as a teacher but at the end his job did not really work out for him (Cefrey 8). Whitney’s problems did not stop when he became an inventor, he had problems with his cotton gin. He could not make cotton gins as fast as the demand was for them so a problem developed from that (Cefrey 12). Whitney patented his cotton gin but many people still copied it so poor Whitney did not make a lot of money off of it (Finlay). With all of these problems you think it could not get worse but it did. In 1795 Whitney’s workshop was destroyed by fire (Alter 29). Eli Whitney is known for various reasons for things he has done, but he is most known for his invention of the cotton gin. Whitney invented the life-changing cotton gin in the South near Savannah during the year of 1794 (Finlay). Because of his invention his public image was known and renewed within the community. He even had his own town named Whitneyville in Connecticut where workers mass produced items (Cefrey 16-17). His accomplishment affected many, people within and out of the community were inspired and some wanted to invent their own things. His cotton gin invention may not have been a huge success financially, but it was a success in other ways. His inventions solved some issues for farmers and slaves by making their work take less effort (Finlay). Farmers and slaves did not have to go through the stressful and tedious work of removing the seeds from the cotton. Farmers need to make sure than can profit off of their crops they produced or it would be pointless for them to grow it. Before Whitney’s cotton gin Farmers struggled for smaller profit, after his cotton gin cotton was more profitable and made a more efficient method for income (Alter 22). Whitney’s Cotton Gin impacted more than just local places, his cotton gin created a huge impact. His invention had a big impact on the economy of this South, the South definitely benefited from this (Haar). In the United States the cotton output had gone from 1.5 million pounds to 8.5 million pounds from 1790 to 1810 (Smith). This proves the true efficiency and usefulness of the cotton gin. The cotton gin was considered the most useful invention in the country at the time (Alter 23). Inventing the cotton gin was one of Eli Whitney’s known inventions but it was not his only accomplishment. Whitney introduced interchangeable parts to people, these interchangeable parts were on weapons (Haar). These interchangeable parts were great because instead of trashing a gun you could swap out parts if that was what was only necessary. The U.S. government needed muskets and Whitney agreed to mass produce 10,000 muskets for them (Cefrey 17). Mass production was very important to create duplicates of something very fast, in Whitneyville they mass produced items (Cefrey 16-17). Eli Whitney was known as an overall great inventor with a brilliant mind and a very determined man (Smith).
 * Introduction**
 * Personal Background**
 * Personality Traits**
 * Obstacles **
 * Historical Significance**

media type="youtube" key="sLb9QGWK8TA" width="560" height="315" align="center"

Alter, Judith. //ELI WHITNEY.// New York: Franklin Watts, 1990. Print. **SE#4** Cefrey, Holly. //The Inventions of Eli Whitney: The Cotton Gin//. New York: Powerkids, 2003. Print. **SE#6** Finlay, Mark."Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America." //South Carolina Historical Magazine//. 01 Jul. 2004:230. //eLibrary//. Web. 02 Oct.2014. **SE#2** Green, McLaughlin, Constance. //Eli Whitney and the Birth of American Technology//. Boston: Little Brown, 1956. Print. **SE#5** Haar, Dan. "A NEW NATION INCHES TOWARD STANDARDS ; THEY WOULD FIND USES IN GUNS, CLOCKS, CULTURE; CHAPTER 2: INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS / INNOVATION." //Hartford Courant //. 28 Dec. 2014: W4. //eLibrary //. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. **SE#3** Smith, N, Jeremy. "Making Cotton King." //World Trade, WT 100 //. 01 Jul. 2009: 82. //eLibrary //. Web. 21 Sep. 2014. **SE#1**
 * References**