Curated OER
The Impact of the Cotton Gin
Fourth graders study Eli Whitney and the cotton gin. In this instructional activity on the cotton gin, 4th graders use primary and secondary sources to gather information about Eli Whitney, the cotton gin that he invented and how it...
Curated OER
Thoreau
Eleventh graders answer the question Why Westborough? Why did their town develop as it did, what types of industry were here and why. They are introduced to journal writing. Students free write about ideas that stand out from class. ...
Curated OER
Cotton Production and Milling
Students examine cotton production and milling. They compete in a hand-ginning contest to realize how difficult it was to separate the seeds from the fibers of cotton. They discuss why Eli Whitney's cotton gin was an important invention.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Education: Spotlight Biography Inventors
This site provides information on American inventors Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Singer, Wilbur Wright, Thomas Alva Edison, Elias Howe, and Alexander Graham Bell. It offers pictures from and...
Other
Eli Whitney Museum: Eli Whitney
This is the Eli Whitney Museum online. Provides information on the inventor, his product, his factory, and much more. Also provides information on the museum itself. Flashpoint not needed, but recommended.
OpenStax
Open Stax: A Vibrant Capitalist Republic
By reading this section of a chapter on "Industrial Transformation in the North," students will be able to explain the process of selling western land, discuss the causes of the Panic of 1819, and identify key American innovators and...
National Inventors Hall of Fame
National Inventors Hall of Fame: Eli Whitney: Cotton Gin
Read about Eli Whitney's cotton gin and its importance to the cotton industry.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Harcourt: Biographies: Eli Whitney
This is a great resource for Eli Whitney. Details his development of the cotton gin, and offers additional information through outside links.
Digital History
Digital History: The Industrial Revolution [Pdf]
This site covers both the initial Industrial Revolution in the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and the second revolution that highlighted new inventions and the businessmen who financed industry. Read brief...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Revolution in Agriculture
Article outlining the extraordinary achievements in agriculture during the 1800s.
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.
New Georgia Encyclopedia: History and Archaeology: Eli Whitney in Georgia
Although Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts, it was in Georgia that he invented the cotton gin in 1793.
US National Archives
Our Documents: Patent for Cotton Gin (1794)
Interactive image of Eli Whitney's plans for the cotton gin, accompanied by an explanation of the cotton gin's purpose and significance in relation to the Industrial Revolution.
PBS
Pbs: Who Made America?: Innovators: Eli Whitney
One-page profile of influential innovator, Eli Whitney, whose vision and ideas created the cotton gin and what would later be known as "mass production".
Enchanted Learning
Enchanted Learning: Inventors & Inventions From the 1700s
Use this site to learn more about early inventors and inventions from the 18th century. This web page offers text and images on various inventors and their inventions. You can also access information about inventors and inventions from...
Other
Eli Whitney/cotton Gin
A collection of websites on Eli Whitney and his invention, the cotton gin.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Rise of American Industry
The Industrial Revolution came to America, smuggled in by Samuel Slater, who brought plans for a cotton-spinning mill. See how the growth of industry led to the growth of corporations, the growth of the nation geographically, and the...
Read Works
Read Works: The Industrial Revolution: Making Cloth
[Free Registration/Login Required] This informational text passages shares facts about the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Wake Up, America: Industrial Revolution in America [Pdf]
A lesson plan from the producers of the 16-episode PBS series "Freedom: A History of US" that looks at the technological advances of early nineteenth-century America and the birth of the Industrial Revolution in America.
Digital History
Digital History: Early Industrialization
Advances in technology affected manufacturing in the North and farming in the South. Read about how America turned from a country where most products were made in the home to an economic power that used factory production.
PBS
Pbs: Africans in America: Part 3: Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin
History of Eli Whitney and his cotton gin. Other links to sites with information on this topic.
US National Archives
Nara: Teaching With Documents: Revolution and the New Nation (1754 1820s)
Links to primary source documents from the revolution to the new nation.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Inventors and Inventions
The industrial revolution in America spawned the inventions of many inventors, who improved technology in many different areas. See how transportation, agriculture, and communications were transformed because of these inventions.
US National Archives
Nara: Teaching With Documents: Eli Whitney's Patent for the Cotton Gin
This National Archives and Records Administration site relates the history of Eli Whitney and his remarkable inventions. Links to sites with patent information on the cotton gin. Tons of teacher's resources can be found at this site.
University of Houston
University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity: No. 1252: Interchangeable Parts
A fun-to-read article on the history of interchangeable parts. Find out that Eli Whitney was not the first to have this manufacturing idea, but he capitalized on it. This is a transcript of an accompanying radio broadcast.