His parents were immigrants to the US and came from Great Britain where a reform was in the process due to inventions that had powers to change the economies of that part of the world. In 1877 his mother Elizabeth died.

 

Eli Jr. along with his father Eli Whitney Sr. and rest of the family, Elizabeth, Benjamin, and Josiah, continued to work the farm. It wasn't long before Eli Sr. found another mother figure for his children and Judith Hazeldon with her widowed children filled that position.

 

In his youth Eli Whitney Jr. helped his family by providing money through his creative enterprises. He could be seen making nails to sell or use around the farm, or learning to repair watches by learning the gear mechanisms within them.

 

Leicester Academy opened in 1784 and Eli was able to attend this school.

 

Eli Whitney brought his own version of a cotton engine to the United States of America at a time when this machine with potential to change the world was being secretly guarded in Great Britain. The Eli Whitney Cotton Ginny is not so much an invention as it is an innovation and a breakthrough for America in the Industrial Revolution.

 

Eli Whitney fought hard in patent courts to protect his ownership rights to this revolutionary machine that would later open a flood gate of factories and a new way of manufacturing textiles.

 

Eli Whitney was also in the musket making business.