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"King Cotton" is a slogan that summarized the strategy used before the American Civil War (of 1861–1865) by secessionists in the southern states (the future Confederate States of America) to claim the feasibility of secession and to prove there was no need to fear a war with the northern states.
King Cotton, phrase frequently used by Southern politicians and authors prior to the American Civil War, indicating the economic and political importance of cotton production. After the invention of the cotton gin (1793), cotton surpassed tobacco as the dominant cash crop in the agricultural.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
American cotton made up two-thirds of the global supply, and production continued to increase. By the time of the Civil War, South Carolina politician James Hammond confidently proclaimed that the North could never threaten the South because “cotton is king.”
KING COTTON. Until the 1790s growers were limited to producing the quantity of cotton that could be processed by slaves. Separating the seeds from cotton was time consuming and labor intensive. The bolls (cottonseed pods) were dried in front of a fire, and the seeds were picked out by hand.
- Cotton Is King
- Southern Culture
- Conditions of Slaves
In the late eighteenth century, a recent Yale graduate named Eli Whitney had aspirations of practicing law. However, like many modern college graduates, Whitney had a debt to repay for his education. To that end, Whitney left his home in Massachusetts to take a tutoring position on a Georgia plantation. Whitney found himself in the midst of an acti...
By the mid nineteenth century, the south had developed into an aristocracy, with wealthy plantation owners at the top of the social ladder. In 1850, only a small minority—approximately 1,750 families—owned more than 100 slaves each. This small group of people carried significant political and social power. Southern aristocrats used their wealth to ...
The conditions in which slaves existed in the nineteenth century varied from region to region—and even from house to house. Wise slave owners recognized the value of slaves as human capital, since by 1860 slaves were worth approximately $1,800 each. As such, while most slaves travailed in the fields cultivating crops, dangerous work, such as roof r...
King Cotton definition: cotton and cotton-growing considered, in the pre-Civil War South, as a vital commodity, the major factor not only in the economy but also in politics.. See examples of KING COTTON used in a sentence.
Jan 30, 2019 · King Cotton was a phrase for the dependence of the American South on cotton as a crop and a source of wealth. Learn how cotton shaped the history of the South, from slavery to the Civil War to sharecropping.
