On this day in 1729, Abigail Wilson was born in Westboro, Mass. (It is also known as Westborough.) Abigail was born 36 years before Westboro’s most famous resident: Eli Whitney Jr., who, in 1795, after graduating from Yale, invented a machine that would quickly and easily separate cotton fibers from their seeds, reducing the amount of manual labor needed for processing cotton. It has been said that the cotton gin shaped the economy of the pre-war South, helping farmers turn a profit even on smaller plantations – but also cementing the institution of slavery. Despite the impact of his invention, patent infringement meant that Whitney made little from his innovation. Instead, he turned to manufacturing muskets for the fledgling army of the United States.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 21:47:01 +0000
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