English: African Americans slaves using the First cotton-gin, 1790-1800 , drawn by William L. Sheppard. Illustration in Harper's weekly, 1869 Dec. 18, p. 813 . Harpers Weekly's illustration depicting event of some 70 years earlier.
The illustration is of a Roller Cotton Gin and not an illustration of a Whitney Spike Gin or Holmes Saw Gin.

First use of the cotton gin - Our engraving on page 813 represents the primitive cotton-gin, which preceded the saw-gin invented by Eli Whitney toward the close of last century. This simple contrivance consisted of two cylinders revolving in opposite directions, which admitted the fibre readily but prevented the passage of the seed and larger "trash", but not so thoroughly cleaning the cotton as Whitney's machine. The scene represented by our artist is the introduction of the gin on a plantation, amidst the excited curiosity of the negroes, who see in the machine a welcome relief from laborious process of cleaning the cotton by hand. Harper's weekly, 18 december 1869