Eli at work in his father's tool shop
113. What a Boy's Love of Tools Led to.Before the Revolution there lived in a Massachusetts village a boy named Eli Whitney. His father had a farm, on which there was also a tool shop. This was the most wonderful place in the world to young Eli. Whenever he had a moment to spare, he was sure to be working away with his father's lathe or cabinet tools. At the age of twelve he made a good violin. After that people with broken violins came to him to have them mended.
One day, when his father had gone to church, Eli got Mr. Whitney's fine watch and took it all apart. He then showed his wonderful mechanical ability by putting it together again, and it ran as smoothly as before. During the war he made quite a bit of money as a nail-smith. At college he helped pay his expenses by mending things and doing a carpenter's work.
Goes to Georgia to teach
If Eli Whitney were living to-day he would surely have been an engineer. But there were no engineers in those days, so he decided to teach. He found a position in far-off Georgia, and took passage on a ship to Savannah. On board ship he found the widow of the old war hero, General Nathanael Greene, whom he had met a short time before. She liked the young man for his friendly nature and his intelligence. He had a very pleasant voyage. But sad was his disappointment when he arrived at Savannah! The people who had asked him to come had engaged another tutor, and he was left without a position.
Invited to Mulberry Grove
He was in a strange place, without money, and did not know what to do. Just then came an invitation to visit at Mulberry Grove, where Mrs. Greene lived. He went gladly and was treated very kindly. He made many new friends. The men liked the interest he took in their farms and their work. The children were his friends because he made for them wonderful toys of all sorts.
Cotton fiber separated from seed by hand
One day some visitors were talking with Mrs. Greene about cotton. This plant was little grown at that time. People knew that it had a fine soft fiber which could be made into excellent cloth. But the fiber had to be separated from the seed before it could be spun. In those days the seeds were taken out by hand, and even a skillful slave could clean only about a pound a day. Think of working a whole day for a handful of cotton! Because of this difficulty, cotton was very expensive, more so even than wool or linen. Only well-to-do people could wear cotton clothes.
ELI WHITNEY WORKING ON HIS COTTON GIN
ELI WHITNEY WORKING ON HIS COTTON GIN
ELI WHITNEY WORKING ON HIS COTTON GIN
114. The Cotton Gin Invented.One of the visitors said that a machine ought to be invented which wouldclean the cotton. Mrs. Greene thought of Whitney. She had seen him make many wonderful things. She believed he could make such a machine, and asked him to try. He thought about it, and believed he could make iron fingers do the work that the fingers of the slaves had done.
Whitney sets to work
Invents cotton gin
Whitney got a basketful of cotton and fixed up a shop. Then he went to work. He had a good deal of trouble, but he kept on. One day he called in Mrs. Greene and her overseer and proudly showed them his little machine, made of rollers and wires and brushes. Into this he poured the cotton just as it came from the field. When he turned a crank the soft, clean cotton came tumbling out of one side and the seeds out of another. This was the cotton gin, which in a few years was to change the entire life of the South.
A few years before Whitney made the cotton gin a vessel came to Liverpool with cotton from the United States. The people in Liverpool were astonished. They did not know that cotton grew in America! As soon as Whitney began to sell his new machines, all the South became a great cotton field. In 1825, the year of Whitney's death, the South shipped abroad thirty-seven million dollars' worth of cotton, more than that of all other goods exported from this country!
More slaves brought into the South
Before this time many planters had thought thatslavery was unnecessary. But when Whitney's gin made cotton growing so profitable, they had to have many more laborers to raise this new crop. Thousands of black slaves were sold to the cotton-growing parts of the South. The planters then believed they could not grow cotton without slaves, and it took a terrible war to settle the great question of slave labor.