Eli Whitney is important to Georgia's history because he revolutionized the cotton industry with his invention of the cotton gin in 1793. The cotton gin significantly increased the efficiency of processing cotton and played a major role in the expansion of cotton cultivation and the rise of the plantation system in Georgia. Whitney's legacy in Georgia includes the economic transformation of the state into a major cotton producer, the growth of the slave labor system, and the deepening of racial inequalities through the dependence on cotton production.
