This is a photograph from the 1790s of Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin patent drawing, a machine that created a greater productivity of cotton. Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin was patented in 1807 which was during the westward expansion of slavery. While Eli Whitney applied for a patent, his intended audience was to the group of people deciding to grant his patent. In this drawing of the Cotton Gin Whitney showed the modern improvements he made to the cotton gin. Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin rapidly increased cotton production and by 1860 America produced sixty percent of the world's cotton. This source is a reliable indicator of America's gradual change toward modernization.