March 14, 1794 (230 years ago today): Inventor Eli Whitney patented his cotton gin. Other cotton gins existed before this however, but Whitney’s version took off and fundamentally reshaped the American economy. Its role in the economic development of the U.S. was directly and inseparably connected to the system of racial slavery, which fueled cotton production successes. Citations: Edward Baptist, *The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism* (New York: Basic Book