Cotton was and still is a vital crop plant, it chiefly provided the South with a monetary advantage over several parts of the United States, and as for me… it made my family. My grandmother would have never left the small town of Moultrie, Georgia in search of a new life in South Florida, she was tired of picking cotton and knew there were better prospects. Even though cotton is an essential part of our daily wear, there were painful recollections surrounding the harvesting of cotton from my descendants. My mother, my grandmother and my great- grandmother all handpicked cotton, and as a child listening to their stories, I had a negative connotation of the crop, nevertheless there is more to cotton than what I comprehend. Cotton is not just a universal crop, but it has a universal name, according to the source, Natural History and Commercial History of Cotton by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce the chief title of cotton is gossypium. The source explains that this genus belongs to the monadelphous class of Linnaeus, and to the usual order of Malvaceous plants. Cotton has very distinct characteristics, “It is characterized by the three long deeply cut segments into which its outer calyx is divided ; by its large, handsome blossoms of five petals, of a yellow, orange, or reddish colour, with or without a central spot of a deeper tint…”(Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce 139). Cotton has copious stamens which are amalgamated in several different ways, some include the base of the stamen, or by single style which include three- five stigmas, or by its seeds which have several contained in each one. The source further delves into the characteristics o...
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...ittle effort and the increasing political strife amongst neighboring countries, it appears impossible. “Its soil is extremely fertile and well watered, with every variety of agricultural and mineral wealth to promote development. Its climate is almost perfect, and it is one of the few tropical lands where cotton can live and increase…” (Hogan 899). The source affirms that some countries have prospered from cotton production, such as Uganda and Nigeria, but seldom have other countries thrived. Cotton is not only used in clothes, towels, and jeans, but is used in fishing nets, tents, coffee filters, paper, socks, and it is used as filling for car seats, pillows, and furniture. In essence, I wear cotton and unintentionally I see it and use it habitually. Often times, I am unaware of its prominence in my life, but hence it truly is the “fabric of our lives”.
Though slightly frivolous to mention merely because of its obviousness but still notably, all the slaves came from the Southern states including and not limited to Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Virginia, South Carolina, and Arkansas. Economically, the United States’ main cash crops—tobacco, rice, sugarcane, and cotton—were cultivated by the slaves who the rich Southerners heavily depended upon. From this perspective establishes a degree of understanding about the unwillingness to abolish slavery and contributes to the reality of the clear division between the agriculturally based South and industrially based North. Having watched the film, I wished the Northern people were more aware of the abuses and dehumanization of the slaves though the saddening reality is that the truth of the slaves’ conditions couldn’t be revealed till much later on because the fear of retaliation and prosecution of the slave owners and white people was very much present. That the slaves’ mistreatment would be considered repulsive and repugnant to the Quakers and abolitionists is made evident the narratives of the slaves read by the different former slaves who elucidated the countless
Students are always taught about slavery, segregation, war, and immigration, but one of the least common topics is farm women in the 1930’s. Lou Ann Jones, author of Mama Learned Us to Work, portrayed a very clear and clean image to her readers as to what the forgotten farm-women during the 1930’s looked like. This book was very personal to me, as I have long listened to stories from my grandmother who vividly remembers times like these mentioned by Jones. In her book Mama Learned Us to Work, author Lou Ann Jones proves that farm women were a major part of Southern economy throughout the content by the ideology and existence of peddlers, the chicken business, and linen production.
Slavery is an issue that continues to be discussed today, and for most Americans, the main reason that sparked the Civil War. Both authors agree that slavery was morally wrong, and it almost brought the Union to its knees while trying to rid the nation of it. However, both authors have very distinct thoughts and reasons for it. While Stanley Elkins’ Slavery has a more personal and opinionated version, James McPherson’s interpretation in Ordeal by Fire is based on facts. McPherson employs the use of graphics and charts to illustrate and quantify the findings about slavery in his book. His writings are based on the economic factors that made slavery the main force for prosperity in the South. Cotton production had become the main source
Through the period of 1865-1900, America’s agriculture underwent a series of changes .Changes that were a product of influential role that technology, government policy and economic conditions played. To extend on this idea, changes included the increase on exported goods, do the availability of products as well as the improved traveling system of rail roads. In the primate stages of these developing changes, farmers were able to benefit from the product, yet as time passed by, dissatisfaction grew within them. They no longer benefited from the changes (economy went bad), and therefore they no longer supported railroads. Moreover they were discontented with the approach that the government had taken towards the situation.
Jennifer Thompson-Cannino was raped at knife point in her apartment. She was able to escape and identify Ronald Cotton as her attacker. The detective conducting the lineup told Jennifer that she had done great, confirming to her that she had chosen the right suspect. Eleven years later, DNA evidence proved that the man Jennifer Identified, Ronald Cotton was innocent and wrongfully convicted. Instead, Bobby Poole was the real perpetrator. Sadly, there are many other cases of erroneous convictions. Picking cotton is a must read for anybody because it educates readers about shortcomings of eyewitness identification, the police investigative process and the court system.
The crops started many years ago, with the switch grass, which is now made for bundling and farm feed, with out the switch grass we may not have the dairy and poultry we have today. Making sure our animals are fed well, is and important thing for the people and the communities. Cotton is another big thing Mississippi has started. Without cotton we would not have the comfortable cloths we wear today, and the towels we dry off with and the pillows and the blankets we sleep with at night, cotton is also used for many medical reason such as gauze for after surgery, and to keep the medicines fresh such as ibuprofen. I am proud to say that cotton is playing an even greater role in our every day lives.
First of all, The United States was out in search for rich soil to plant many fields of cotton.
Between 1800 and 1860 slavery in the American South had become a ‘peculiar institution’ during these times. Although it may have seemed that the worst was over when it came to slavery, it had just begun. The time gap within 1800 and 1860 had slavery at an all time high from what it looks like. As soon as the cotton production had become a long staple trade source it gave more reason for slavery to exist. Varieties of slavery were instituted as well, especially once international slave trading was banned in America after 1808, they had to think of a way to keep it going – which they did. Nonetheless, slavery in the American South had never declined; it may have just come to a halt for a long while, but during this time between 1800 and 1860, it shows it could have been at an all time high.
After the devastation left from the Civil War, many field owners looked for new ways to replace their former slaves with field hands for farming and production use. From this need for new field hands came sharecroppers, a “response to the destitution and disorganized” agricultural results of the Civil War (Wilson 29). Sharecropping is the working of a piece of land by a tenant in exchange for a portion of the crops that they bring in for their landowners. These farmhands provided their labor, while the landowners provided living accommodations for the worker and his family, along with tools, seeds, fertilizers, and a portion of the crops that they had harvested that season. A sharecropper had “no entitlement to the land that he cultivated,” and was forced “to work under any conditions” that his landowner enforced (Wilson 798). Many landowners viewed sharecropping as a way to elude the now barred possession of slaves while still maintaining field hands for labor in an inexpensive and ample manner. The landowners watched over the sharecroppers and their every move diligently, with harsh supervision, and pressed the sharecroppers to their limits, both mentally and physically. Not only were the sharecroppers just given an average of one-fourth of their harvest, they had “one of the most inadequate incomes in the United States, rarely surpassing more than a few hundred dollars” annually (Wilson 30). Under such trying conditions, it is not hard to see why the sharecroppers struggled to maintain a healthy and happy life, if that could even be achieved. Due to substandard conditions concerning sharecropper’s clothing, insufficient food supplies, and hazardous health issues, sharecroppers competed on the daily basis to stay alive on what little their landowners had to offer them.
During the many events and troubles that were occurring throughout the late 40s and 50s, tensions have increased between the North and South. South was on the edge of secession since they were threatening to get what they want, more land to continue the growth of slavery and expand their operations and sources of income. The North didn't want that to happen since more land given to the South would lead to even more political problems and it would leave the North at a disadvantage. The North and the world were dependent on access to cotton, said Hammond. The commodity that was processed by both northern and European manufactures. Worldwide industry would come to halt if not for the availability of cotton. Hammond then goes on to mention that if the South were to stop producing and selling cotton for 3 years, all places of civilization will start to collapse, and they would feel obligated to help the South and obtain their cotton again. Since the price of cotton increased in the South, it was cheaper to get cotton from Egypt and India and supply it to European
During 1798 through 1820, the state of Mississippi grew tremendously. With the availability to large quantity of inexpensive land, Mississippi’s growth and development is due to cotton. Mississippi became one of the largest states to produce cotton in America. Cotton was used for many reason some of it they traded off to other states. But most of all it was very useful to us like by making clothing to wear during the cold winters and pillows for the beds. They even crushed the cotton seeds into oil, meals, and hull. Which they used that for livestock feeding. The growth of cotton was so huge that they created the cotton gin which supplied jobs for many people mostly African American. Religious beliefs among the Americans today are as phenomenal, dramatic, and widespread as it has ever
Cotton is not the state flower of Mississippi, but it should be because of what it has meant to the state and its people. Cotton has been the instrument of slavery and sharecropping. Both systems enslaved African-Americans and enriched the pockets of White Mississippians. Cotton was a labor intensive crop before the age of large scale mechanization. It needed many hands to pick the cotton and get the seeds out of its billowy...
Many Americans choose to forget the past brutalities of child labor. Unfortunately, the past does not disappear. Child labor did take place in the U.S. and the Carolina Cotton Mill photograph is a prominent witness. Lewis Wickes Hine is the artist behind this powerful photo, which was taken in the early 1900s (Dimock). Hine’s Carolina Cotton Mill embodies the struggle of child labor through the incorporation of situational information, artistic elements such as lines and space, and cultural values.
While the north was undergoing an "industrial revolution," the south remained agriculturally based. Rice, which was the first grown in South Carolina in the early 1960's, was a very promising harvest. Between 1820and 1850, the production of rice nearly tripled, making it a leading colonial crop along the seacoast of South Carolina and Georgia. Rice had definitely proved to be a "magic crop" of the South. (Boyer, pg.96)
In the early 1900s, the American South had very distinctive social classes: African Americans, poor white farmers, townspeople, and wealthy aristocrats. This class system is reflected in William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, where the Bundrens a poor, white family, are on a quest to bury their now deceased wife and mother, Addie in the town of Jefferson. Taking a Marxist criticism approach to As I Lay Dying, readers notice how Faulkner’s use of characterization reveals how country folk are looked down upon by the wealthy, upper class townspeople.