"There was a good mechanic
spoiled when you came to college," he was told by a carpenter in
the town. There was no "Sheff" at Yale in those days to give
young men like Whitney scientific instruction; so, defying the
bent of his abilities, Eli went on with his academic studies,
graduated in 1792, at the age of twenty-seven, and decided to be
a teacher or perhaps a lawyer.
Like so many young New Englanders of the time, Whitney sought
employment in the South. Having received the promise of a
position in South Carolina, he embarked at New York, soon after
his graduation, on a sailing vessel bound for Savannah. On board
he met the widow of General Nathanael Greene of Revolutionary
fame, and this lady invited him to visit her plantation at
Mulberry Grove, near Savannah. What happened then is best told by
Eli Whitney himself, in a letter to his father, written at New
Haven, after his return from the South some months later, though
the spelling master will probably send Whitney to the foot of the
class:
"New Haven, Sept. 11th, 1793.
". . . I went from N. York with the family of the late Major
General Greene to Georgia. I went immediately with the family to
their Plantation about twelve miles from Savannah with an
expectation of spending four or five days and then proceed into
Carolina to take the school as I have mentioned in former
letters.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54