Green C. McL. Eli Whitney and the birth of American technology

Little, Brown & Company, 1956. — 212 p.This book is about the man who invented a machine that would, as the author says, “fasten slavery upon the south for three generations to come.” It is hard to tell what would have happened if Eli Whitney in 1792-93 had not invented the relatively simple machine that allowed short staple cotton to be cleaned of its seeds easily and which eventually made cotton “king.” With the huge problems growing tobacco and its effect on the land and with other changes occurring in markets and technology, Green points out that perhaps the South would have become a quite different place. No one knows for sure. This very good little biography is no “apologia” for Whitney who was brilliant but at the same time incredibly single-minded and largely oblivious to the larger social context around him his entire life. Whitney spent much of the rest of his life fighting against planters and states that refused to recognize his invention and who claimed that others had invented the “gin” (short for engine). A contemporary reader finds it hard not to judge Whitney (who never says anything in his writing about slavery) but, given our recognition of historical events and regardless of our judgment, this is the story of what happened. Green’s book is an insightful and well-written piece of biographical history.