Hello Jeremy and Everyone,
Well, I immediately went to my bookmarked Gunston Hall website and found the
inventory, as I guessed that may be your group. I love the website because it
shows how the "other half" read "other 1/100th" lived back then via many of
the amazing inventories there. For those who don't know:
http://look.net/gunstonhall/probate/inventory.htm
I began looking around (googling) because I believe I had seen the word "gin"
in a much earlier inventory at some time, maybe in Pennsylvania, and had been
curious but not followed up.
I quickly found two items of interest (via "Eli Whitney" "cotton gin"
history):
FIRST.. as it looks like it'd answer many of your questions, you might
consider obtaining this book published by Johns Hopkins "Inventing the Cotton Gin:
Machine and Myth in Antebellum America by Angela Lakwete" A review of the
book has the following excerpted paragraphs:
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/oct/prize111804.html
“Angela was an extremely dedicated and imaginative scholar,” Basalla said,
“Her book is the definitive study of Eli Whitney, cotton gins and the role
cotton gins played in the economic development of the South.".....
and:
"With a grant from the National Museum of American History, Lakwete traveled
to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Mesilla Park in New Mexico, which houses
several models of cotton gins, to study them firsthand. Her book is illustrated
with photographs and diagrams of cotton gins from primitive roller gins to
the complex gins of the mid-19th Century. Cotton gins have been in existence for
centuries, according to the book. Lakwete gives a global overview of cotton
and early cotton gins from First Century to 1600, followed by a history of the
cotton gin in the Americas until 1790. Whitney invented his wire-toothed gin
in 1794, which evolved into the saw gin, developed and refined by Southern
cotton gin makers. Later the McCarthy and cylinder cotton gins were developed."
SECOND...This website discusses a more contemporary controversy that Eli
Whitney may have received the patent, but he was working with/in contact with
others....Patents a race to the finish line back then. This may have been
referred to in the above book:
http://www.whitneygen.org/archives/biography/eli.html
"There exists question today over whether the cotton gin, which Whitney
received a patent for on March 14, 1794, and its constituent elements should
rightly be attributed to Eli Whitney; some contend that Catherine Littlefield Greene
should be credited with the invention of the cotton gin, or at least its
conception. It is known that she associated with Eli Whitney (along with other
historical figures such as George and Martha Washington)."
Best Regards,
Janet (Baugh) Hunter
In a message dated 6/8/2006 9:11:41 AM Central Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:
> Hi List,
>
> A few colleagues of mine are working on a website that puts early
> Virginia probate inventory information online. Someone noticed that
> in the inventory of Moore Fauntleroy, from Richmond county, VA, that
> has a "cotton gin" listed in 1791, a year or two before Eli Whitney
> invented the cotton gin (1793) and was granted a patent for the gin
> in 1794. Assuming that Fauntleroy's probate inventory was taken
> within a year of his death, his cotton gin predates Whitney's gin at
> least 2-3 years, perhaps more if Fauntleroy in fact owned the cotton
> gin earlier.
>
> So, our questions:
>
> 1. Was the cotton gin invented earlier that we think? Do we have
> Whitney's invention date wrong?
> 2. Were there other devices, not necessarily associated with Whitney,
> that were called "cotton gins", and if so, did they differ
> significantly from Whitney's invention?
> 3. How often was the term "cotton gin" used before Whitney's
> invention? And how far back? Does anyone know of any other references
> to a cotton gin that predate Whitney?
>
> Any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
>
> Jeremy
>
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