42-489: Wilkes County is the name of two counties in the United States: Wilkes County, Georgia Wilkes County, North Carolina [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to
84-461: A 5,000 dollar incentive with an additional 5,000 dollars once that money was exhausted for the person that was able to accurately produce arms for the government. Because the cotton gin had not brought Whitney the rewards he believed it promised, he accepted the offer. Although the contract was for one year, Whitney did not deliver the arms until 1809, using multiple excuses for the delay. Recently, historians have found that during 1801–1806, Whitney took
126-489: A contract to manufacture muskets in 1798 were mostly monetary. By the late 1790s, Whitney was on the verge of bankruptcy and the cotton gin litigation had left him deeply in debt . His New Haven cotton gin factory had burned to the ground, and litigation sapped his remaining resources. The French Revolution had ignited new conflicts between Great Britain, France, and the United States. The new American government, realizing
168-429: A dominant economic force, and slavery was sustained as a key institution of Southern society. Eli Whitney has often been incorrectly credited with inventing the idea of interchangeable parts, which he championed for years as a maker of muskets ; however, the idea predated Whitney, and Whitney's role in it was one of promotion and popularizing, not invention. Successful implementation of the idea eluded Whitney until near
210-665: A fair amount of standardization of artillery pieces, although not true interchangeability of parts. He inspired others, including Honoré Blanc and Louis de Tousard , to work further on the idea, and on shoulder weapons as well as artillery. In the 19th century these efforts produced the "armory system," or American system of manufacturing . Certain other New Englanders, including Captain John H. Hall and Simeon North , arrived at successful interchangeability before Whitney's armory did. The Whitney armory finally succeeded not long after his death in 1825. The motives behind Whitney's acceptance of
252-443: A farm laborer and school teacher to save money. He prepared for Yale at Leicester Academy (later Becker College ) and under the tutelage of Rev. Elizur Goodrich of Durham , Connecticut, he entered Yale in the fall of 1789 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1792. Whitney expected to study law but, finding himself short of funds, accepted an offer to go to South Carolina as a private tutor. Instead of reaching his destination, he
294-449: A gin which substituted circular saws for the spikes) and their cotton gin company went out of business in 1797. One oft-overlooked point is that there were drawbacks to Whitney's first design. There are claims that the use of wires rather than pegs was proposed by Mrs. Greene, but these are disputed. After validation of the patent, the legislature of South Carolina voted $ 50,000 for the rights for that state, while North Carolina levied
336-467: A license tax for five years, from which about $ 30,000 was realized. There is a claim that Tennessee paid about $ 10,000. While the cotton gin did not earn Whitney the fortune he had hoped for, it did give him fame. It has been argued by some historians that Whitney's cotton gin was an important if unintended cause of the American Civil War. After Whitney's invention, the plantation slavery industry
378-439: A month after his 59th birthday. He left a widow and his four children behind. One of his offspring, Eli Whitney III (known as Eli Whitney Jr.), was instrumental in building New Haven, Connecticut's waterworks. During the course of his illness, he reportedly invented and constructed several devices to mechanically ease his pain. The Eli Whitney Students Program , Yale University's admissions program for non-traditional students ,
420-602: A total area of 474 square miles (1,230 km ), of which 469 square miles (1,210 km ) is land and 4.6 square miles (12 km ) (1.0%) is water. It is located in the Piedmont region above the fall line . The northern quarter of Wilkes County, in a curved line from Rayle through Tignall to the northeastern corner of the county, is located in the Broad River sub-basin of the Savannah River basin. The eastern portion of
462-428: Is considered Georgia's first county established by European Americans; it was the first of eight original counties created in the first state constitution on February 5, 1777. The other seven counties were organized from existing colonial parishes. Wilkes was unique in being made up of land ceded in 1773 by the indigenous Creek and Cherokee Native American nations in their respective Treaties of Augusta. Its location
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#1732851578602504-619: The African slavery system in the Southern United States to become more sustainable at a critical point in its development. Whitney applied for the patent for his cotton gin on October 28, 1793, and received the patent (later numbered as X72) on March 14, 1794, but it was not validated until 1807. Whitney and his partner, Miller, did not intend to sell the gins. Rather, like the proprietors of gristmills and sawmills , they expected to charge farmers for cleaning their cotton – two-fifths of
546-663: The Deep South to cultivate short-staple cotton. Settlers increased pressure on the federal government to remove Native Americans from the region, including the Five Civilized Tribes from the Southeast. In 1794, Revolutionary War veteran Elijah Clarke , led a group of men from Wilkes County into traditionally Creek lands and established a town and several forts and called it the Trans-Oconee Republic . While short lived,
588-734: The Low Country . Such expansion dramatically increased the demand for slave labor in the Deep South, resulting in a longstanding domestic slave trade that transported more than a million slaves in forced migrations from the Upper South. King Cotton brought great wealth to many planters in the decades before the Civil War. None of the battles of the American Civil War was fought in or near Wilkes County. But here President Jefferson Davis met for
630-594: The North the adoption of interchangeable parts revolutionized the manufacturing industry, contributing greatly to the U.S. victory in the Civil War . The cotton gin is a mechanical device that removes the seeds from cotton, a process that had previously been extremely labor-intensive. The word gin is short for engine. While staying at Mulberry Grove, Whitney constructed several ingenious household devices which led Mrs Greene to introduce him to some businessmen who were discussing
672-530: The United States for another 70 years. Before the 1790s, slave labor was primarily employed in growing rice, tobacco, and indigo , none of which were especially profitable anymore. Neither was cotton, due to the difficulty of seed removal. But with the invention of the gin, growing cotton with slave labor became highly profitable – the chief source of wealth in the American South, and the basis of frontier settlement from Georgia to Texas. " King Cotton " became
714-423: The area in the mid-20th century have resulted in a decline of population in the rural county since 1930. As of the 2020 United States census , there were 9,565 people, 3,979 households, and 2,421 families residing in the county. 33°47′N 82°44′W / 33.79°N 82.74°W / 33.79; -82.74 Eli Whitney Eli Whitney Jr. (December 8, 1765 – January 8, 1825)
756-481: The cotton gin. Thereafter, he turned his attention to securing contracts with the government in the manufacture of muskets for the newly formed United States Army. He continued making arms and inventing until his death in 1825. Whitney was born in Westborough , Massachusetts , on December 8, 1765, the eldest child of Eli Whitney Sr., a prosperous farmer, and his wife Elizabeth Fay, also of Westborough. The younger Eli
798-710: The county, from Washington east, and bordered to the north and west by the Broad River sub-basin, is located in the Upper Savannah River sub-basin of the larger Savannah River basin. The rest of the county, south of Washington, is located in the Little River sub-basin of the Savannah River basin. Changes in agriculture through mechanization, the Great Depression , and a mass migration of African Americans from
840-845: The creation of Madison , Warren , Taliaferro , Hart , McDuffie , and Greene Counties. Wilkes County was the site of one of the most important battles of the American Revolutionary War to be fought in Georgia. During the Battle of Kettle Creek in 1779, the American Patriot forces were victorious over British Loyalists . During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, colonists depended on enslaved African-American workers and whites to clear land, develop plantations , and cultivate and process cotton in this area. Long-staple cotton would not grow in this upland areas and short-staple cotton
882-407: The desirability of a machine to separate the short staple upland cotton from its seeds, work that was then done by hand at the rate of a pound of lint a day. In a few weeks Whitney produced a model. The cotton gin was a wooden drum stuck with hooks that pulled the cotton fibers through a mesh. The cotton seeds would not fit through the mesh and fell outside. Whitney occasionally told a story wherein he
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#1732851578602924-621: The east central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia . As of the 2020 census , the population was 9,565. The county seat is the city of Washington . Referred to as "Washington-Wilkes", the county seat and county are commonly treated as a single entity by locals, including the area's historical society and the Chamber of Commerce. It is part of the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA). Wilkes County, named for British politician and supporter of American independence, John Wilkes ,
966-571: The end of his life, occurring first in others' armories. Attempts at interchangeability of parts can be traced back as far as the Punic Wars through both archaeological remains of boats now in Museo Archeologico Baglio Anselmi and contemporary written accounts. In modern times the idea developed over decades among many people. An early leader was Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval , an 18th-century French artillerist who created
1008-605: The famed evangelist Jonathan Edwards , daughter of Pierpont Edwards , head of the Democratic Party in Connecticut, and first cousin of Yale's president, Timothy Dwight , the state's leading Federalist , further tied him to Connecticut's ruling elite . In a business dependent on government contracts, such connections were essential to success. Whitney died of prostate cancer on January 8, 1825, in New Haven, Connecticut, just
1050-644: The final time with the Confederate Cabinet, and they officially dissolved the government of the Confederate States of America . Wilkes County was the last-known location of the gold rumored to have been lost from the Confederate Treasury. The present-day Wilkes County Courthouse was built in Washington at the site of the cabinet meeting. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the county has
1092-476: The first milling machine circa 1818. Subsequent work by other historians (Woodbury; Smith; Muir; Battison [cited by Baida ]) suggests that Whitney was among a group of contemporaries all developing milling machines at about the same time (1814 to 1818), and that the others were more important to the innovation than Whitney was. (The machine that excited Roe may not have been built until 1825, after Whitney's death.) Therefore, no one person can properly be described as
1134-471: The government complained that Whitney's price per musket compared unfavorably with those produced in government armories, he was able to calculate an actual price per musket by including fixed costs such as insurance and machinery , which the government had not accounted for. He thus made early contributions to both the concepts of cost accounting , and economic efficiency in manufacturing. Machine tool historian Joseph W. Roe credited Whitney with inventing
1176-577: The incursion was part of a broader movement of incursion into traditionally native lands. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830 and the government forcibly removed most of the members of these tribes to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Production of short-staple cotton in the Deep South soon superseded that of long-staple cotton, grown primarily on the Sea Islands and in
1218-413: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wilkes_County&oldid=933249660 " Category : United States county name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Wilkes County, Georgia Wilkes County is a county located in
1260-536: The inventor of the milling machine. Despite his humble origins, Whitney was keenly aware of the value of social and political connections. In building his arms business, he took full advantage of the access that his status as a Yale alumnus gave him to other well-placed graduates, such as Oliver Wolcott Jr. , Secretary of the Treasury (class of 1778), and James Hillhouse , a New Haven developer and political leader. His 1817 marriage to Henrietta Edwards, granddaughter of
1302-400: The money and headed into South Carolina in order to profit from the cotton gin. Although Whitney's demonstration of 1801 appeared to show the feasibility of creating interchangeable parts, Merritt Roe Smith concludes that it was "staged" and "duped government authorities" into believing that he had been successful. The charade gained him time and resources toward achieving that goal. When
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1344-817: The need to prepare for war, began to rearm. The War Department issued contracts for the manufacture of 10,000 muskets. Whitney, who had never made a gun in his life, obtained a contract in January 1798 to deliver 10,000 to 15,000 muskets in 1800. He had not mentioned interchangeable parts at that time. Ten months later, the Treasury Secretary, Oliver Wolcott Jr. , sent him a "foreign pamphlet on arms manufacturing techniques," possibly one of Honoré Blanc's reports, after which Whitney first began to talk about interchangeability. In May 1798, Congress voted for legislation that would use 800,000 dollars in order to pay for small arms and cannons in case war with France erupted. It offered
1386-405: The value, paid in cotton. Resentment at this scheme, the mechanical simplicity of the device and the primitive state of patent law , made infringement inevitable. Whitney and Miller could not build enough gins to meet demand, so gins from other makers found ready sale. Ultimately, patent infringement lawsuits consumed the profits (one patent, later annulled, was granted in 1796 to Hogden Holmes for
1428-489: Was Phineas Miller, another Connecticut migrant and Yale graduate (class of 1785), who would become Whitney's business partner. Whitney is most famous for two innovations which came to have significant impacts on the United States in the mid-19th century: the cotton gin (1793) and his advocacy of interchangeable parts . In the South, the cotton gin revolutionized the way cotton was harvested and reinvigorated slavery. Conversely, in
1470-444: Was a staple that could be stored for long periods and shipped long distances, unlike most agricultural products. It became the U.S.'s chief export, representing over half the value of U.S. exports from 1820 to 1860. Whitney believed that his cotton gin would reduce the demand for enslaved labor and would help hasten the end of southern slavery. Paradoxically, the cotton gin, a labor-saving device, helped preserve and prolong slavery in
1512-623: Was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South . Whitney's invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States and prolonged the institution. Despite the social and economic impact of his invention, Whitney lost much of his profits in legal battles over patent infringement for
1554-588: Was convinced to visit Georgia. In the closing years of the 18th century, Georgia was a magnet for New Englanders seeking their fortunes (its Revolutionary-era governor had been Lyman Hall , a migrant from Connecticut). When he initially sailed for South Carolina, among his shipmates were the widow ( Catherine Littlefield Greene ) and family of the Revolutionary hero Gen. Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island. Mrs. Greene invited Whitney to visit her Georgia plantation, Mulberry Grove . Her plantation manager and husband-to-be
1596-558: Was famous during his lifetime and after his death by the name "Eli Whitney", though he was technically Eli Whitney Jr. His son, born in 1820, also named Eli, was known during his lifetime and afterward by the name "Eli Whitney Jr." Whitney's mother, Elizabeth Fay, died in 1777, when he was 11. At age 14 he operated a profitable nail manufacturing operation in his father's workshop during the Revolutionary War . Because his stepmother opposed his wish to attend college, Whitney worked as
1638-424: Was originally too labor-intensive to be profitable. In 1793, American Eli Whitney perfected his revolutionary invention of the cotton gin at Mount Pleasant, a cotton plantation east of Washington. It allowed mechanization of the processing of short-staple cotton, making its cultivation profitable in the upland areas. As a result, there was a dramatic increase in the development of new cotton plantations throughout
1680-511: Was pondering an improved method of seeding the cotton when he was inspired by observing a cat attempting to pull a chicken through a fence, and able to only pull through some of the feathers. A single cotton gin could generate up to 55 pounds (25 kg) of cleaned cotton daily. This contributed to the economic development of the Southern United States , a prime cotton growing area; some historians believe that this invention allowed for
1722-479: Was rejuvenated, eventually culminating in the Civil War. The cotton gin transformed Southern agriculture and the national economy. Southern cotton found ready markets in Europe and in the burgeoning textile mills of New England . Cotton exports from the U.S. boomed after the cotton gin's appearance – from less than 500,000 pounds (230,000 kg) in 1793 to 93 million pounds (42,000,000 kg) by 1810. Cotton
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1764-450: Was unique due to its close proximity to the Atlantic seaboard fall line . Between 1790 and 1854, Wilkes County's area was reduced as it was divided to organize new counties following the growth of population in the area. The Georgia legislature formed the counties of Elbert , Oglethorpe , and Lincoln entirely from portions of Wilkes County. Wilkes also contributed part of the lands used in
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