11. Catherine Greene influenced the development of the cotton gin
Catherine Littlefield Greene, born on New England’s Block Island, married fellow Rhode Islander Nathanael Greene, in 1774. Nathanael became George Washington’s most trusted and capable commander during the Revolutionary War. He also assumed considerable debts, pledging his personal credit to acquire badly needed supplies from South Carolina merchants. After the war, Catherine, whom he called Caty, and Nathanael settled in Georgia, near Savannah. Both had been prosperous before the war, and Catherine found her reduced circumstances trying, though she continued to support his efforts to make their rice plantation profitable. Nathanael died suddenly in 1786.
Catherine continued to petition Congress for payment of the funds her late husband expended during the war, and in 1792, Washington intervened. By then, the plantation generated annual profits, and Caty hired a tutor to instruct her children. The young tutor lived on the estate, tinkering with machinery in his spare time. His name was Eli Whitney. While living on the Greene plantation he successfully completed his working cotton gin and marketed it with Caty’s encouragement and financial support. Whitney’s cotton gin revolutionized the Southern economy, making cotton a valuable crop, though its labor intense cultivation also increased the demand for slaves across the southern states.