Hello, my name is Eli Whitney. I was born on December 8, 1765, in Westborough, Massachusetts..

In 1775 the Revolutionary War began.

Sadly, in 1777 my mother Elizabeth Fay died. My father married Judith Hazeldon 2 years later.

Because of the War nails were very expensive, so I started a nail business in my fathers workshop in 1780. The War ended 3 years later and my business was ruined.

I went to Yale in 1789. In 1792 I graduated from Yale, and stayed with Catherine Greene at her plantation in Mulberry Grove.

Because of a high demand of cotton to be harvested, I invented the cotton gin in 1793, became partners with Mr. Miller. The following year I got a patent for the cotton gin.

People started copying the design and spread rumors. To ad trouble, the factory and 20 cotton gins inside were burned.

For money, I received a contract from the U.S. government for 10,000 muskets in 1798. The musket factory at Millrock in Hamden near New Haven was built the next year.

2 years later I gave a demonstration of interchangeable parts with the president and others in Washington, D.C.

To earn money for the invention of the cotton gin, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee bought patent rights to the cotton gin 1802-1804.

Miller died of a fever in 1803.

In 1807 the patent expired, making the cotton gin a failure.

2 years later, I finished my musket contract. In 1812, the U.S. declared war on Great Britain, and I was given a second contract for 15,000 muskets.

On 1817 I married Herietta F. Edwards and had 4 children.

In 1822 I got my third musket contract and became very ill.

I made my last invention in 1824, the tumbler mill.

On January 8, 1825, Eli Whitney died with an age of 59.