An article from the American Historical Review presenting letters of Eli Whitney and associates (Phineas Miller, Josiah Stebbins, Nathaniel Pendleton and others) concerning the invention and patenting of the cotton gin. An editorial introduction reviews earlier ginning machines and rival claims to the invention (Mrs. Greene, Hodgen Holmes, Joseph Watkins, Lyon). The letters, from 1793 to 1805, cover the model and patent, a shop fire, patent litigation in Georgia, and South Carolina's purchase of the patent right and its later suspension of payments.