Timeline Friday 14 March 1794

Events on Friday 14 March 1794 1

• 1794 Eli Whitney Patents the Cotton Gin Patent granted for a machine that mechanizes cotton fiber separation Eli Whitney received a United States patent for the cotton gin, a device that rapidly separated cotton fibers from seeds. The invention made short-staple cotton commercially viable and transformed the economy of the American South. It also entrenched and expanded plantation slavery across the region.