On March 14, 1794, Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin. This Ted Ed lesson explains what happened next.
Harpers’ Weekly: “The first cotton gin” Image: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division digital ID cph.3c03801.
The cotton gin helped spur demand for cotton and the enslaved labor needed to plant, harvest, and clean it.
Read more in
Don’t Know Much About the Civil War (Harper paperback, Random House Audio)
