Early Life
Eli Whitney was born on December 8, 1765 in West borough Massachusetts. He was raised in a farm where he learned to make nails and used his own inventions. He started inventing and building things at a young age while working as a blacksmith. He even crafted canes and hatpins for women, Eli attended Yale at age 19 and graduated at age 28. Since he was in need of money, Eli sought a career as a tutor in South Carolina.
While in South Carolina, Eli noticed how difficult it was to harvest cotton and to make a profit from it. Removing the seed from the cotton fiber was time consuming. Whitney worked during most of the winter in inventing a machine that would make cleaning cotton simple.
Personal Life
Eli married Henrietta Edwards in 1817.
They had many children together. One of Eli's sons took after him after Eli died at age 57. Eli died on January 8th, 1825 due to a long and stressful illness.