Table of Contents
Where did cotton first go?
Arab merchants brought cotton cloth to Europe about 800 A.D. When Columbus discovered America in 1492, he found cotton growing in the Bahama Islands. By 1500, cotton was known generally throughout the world. Cotton seed are believed to have been planted in Florida in 1556 and in Virginia in 1607.
Where did cotton come from during the Industrial Revolution?
Cotton was a main raw material of the industrial revolution. Its strong fibres were uniquely suited to the hard mechanical treatment in the spinning machinery. The fibre was cultivated in the colonies in India and the Middle East and in the USA, where until 1860 it was produced largely by slave labour.
How did the cotton industry change in the 19th century?
The picking of cotton fibers from the plants was very difficult to work which had to be done by hand. So the harvesting of cotton required an enormous workforce. As the cotton industry grew, the number of enslaved people in America also increased during the early 19th century.
Where did cotton come from before the Civil War?
Plantation owners brought mass supplies of labor ( slaves) from Africa and the Caribbean to hoe and harvest the crop. Prior to the U.S. Civil War, cotton production expanded from 750,000 bales in 1830 to 2.85 million bales in 1850.
How did slaves get the most out of cotton?
Sometimes the cotton was dried before it was ginned (put through the process of separating the seeds from the cotton fiber). The cotton gin allowed a slave to remove the seeds from fifty pounds of cotton a day, compared to one pound if done by hand. After the seeds had been removed, the cotton was pressed into bales.
Why was King Cotton important to the south?
King Cotton was a phrase coined in the years before the Civil War to refer to the economy of the American South. The southern economy was particularly dependent on cotton. And, as cotton was very much in demand, both in America and Europe, it created a special set of circumstances. Great profits could be made by growing cotton.