Early Life and Before the Cotton Gin

Eli Whitney was born on December 8th, 1765, on a farm in Massachusetts. Whitney would go on to impact not only the USA, but the entire world with the invention of the cotton gin and its effects on the Civil War. Eli Whitney was always a hard worker with a creative mind. He produced nails in a factory during the Revolutionary War, which helped his understanding of machines. He was a very smart child, always tinkering with the machines and clocks.  He quickly learned how his local marketplace worked, and he started making hatpins and canes.

His genius was finding what people wanted and needed, then making what they requested. This led to him becoming an inventor because there were many things that people wanted, but the world hadn’t invented yet.