The following is an article from the “Farmers and Consumer’s Market Bulletin, written by Lee Lancaster. The article is Georgie’s, the mascot of the FCMB, telling of yet another trip he made through Georgia.
Hello! I’m Georgie, the Georgia Grown mascot. I travel the state of Georgia promoting our No. 1 industry—agriculture. Everybody knows that Eli Whitney invented the modern mechanical cotton gin. But did you know that he invented it in 1793 near Port Wentworth in Chatham County? Born and raised in Connecticut, Whitney was on a ship headed to South Carolina to begin his career as a teacher when he met Catherine Greene, the widow of the Revolutionary War hero, Nathanael Greene and owner of Mulberry Grove Plantation. Gen. Greene was given the plantation as a gift from George Washington after the previous owner was kicked out for supporting another George, King George III of England. Whitney came to the plantation to tutor Greene’s children and tinkered with the idea he had for separating cotton lint from the boll. When he perfected his design, he built a full-size gin at Mulberry Grove. The only remnants of the plantation are a few bricks from the foundation. The rest was destroyed during Sherman’s March to the Sea.
