Eli Whiteney

It came to my attention this morning (via Twitter) that a non-trivial number of people were taught in school that Eli Whitney - the inventor of the cotton gin - was not a white man from Massachusetts, but was, in fact, black.

I would like to use this space to state, unequivocally, that Eli Whitney was, without a doubt, white.

My name is Eli Whitney and I'm white as hell.

It seems as if there are two possibilities as to why this "myth" (and I use that word reeeeaaaally loosely) spread:

1) It was (and judging by some of the responses to Rembert Browne's tweet, seemingly continues to be) a case where a certain subsection of teachers were taught this when they were in school and are now unintentionally passing off incorrect information to their current students.

or

2) This was an intentional falsehood spread en masse. If it were a black man who invented the cotton gin, then whites could claim that they were less complicit in the expansion of the cotton South as well as the existing and subsequent horrors of slavery. If someone blamed whites for the South's reliance on enslavement and free labor, supporters of slavery could respond with "Well, actually" and shift the blame on a black man (and, by extension, black people in general).

While I hope the reasoning is the former, I unfortunately suspect that it is (for the most part) the latter.


On that note, Happy Black History Month, everyone! Let's all vow to learn and spread knowledge about African-American history; not just in February, but throughout the entire year as well. Please do not end up like this man.

(And don't forget, "Every month is White History Month" is always the correct response to a friend/relative/overly talkative stranger who histrionically exclaims something to the effect of "Why isn't there a White History Month!?!?")