Cotton was introduced to the American economy in the 1600s when in 1607 the first seed was planted by colonists along the James River in Virginia. This would change the way their economy operated ever after the introduction. It provided an economic backbone for this country to grow on and was the number two cash crop only to tobacco.

Slavery was employed to mill the cotton fields.

About twenty percent of the colonies were African American and about ninety percent of these people were slaves. Even though the northern colonies (who relied less on cotton for income) were somewhat critical of the morality of slavery the southern colonies countered with the fact that this was the only way to make a profit off of the enterprise.

The colonists had the resources to produce a great amount of cotton but did not have much technical know how. Samuel Slater would be the one who changed this. He migrated to America and built the first American cotton mill solely from memory.

Once the cotton mill was created Eli Whitney saw the need to remove lint from the seed and he invented a machine known as the cotton gin. This invention revolutionized the way that lint was separated from the seed. Up until that time the process had been done by hand.

Cotton would decrease in importance in the American economy until it was all but phased out entirely. But it truly sustained the country through hard times early on, even though it required amoral behavior on the part of the colonists.

Learn more about this author, Royce Radcliffe.
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