On June 20, 1793, Eli Whitney, who had graduated from Yale the previous year, wrote to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, requesting a patent for his new invention, the cotton gin. The gin ...

After his death, Eli Whitney was described as "one of the most distinguished men who our country as produced." ...

5 discussion on the invention of the cotton gin and enslavement ... kids said it led to jokes about the enslavement of Black people. “It was humiliating and deeply embarrassing for the students ...