Cotton was an incredibly profitable crop and everyone who handled it from farmers to exporters made good profits. read more
Because of British demand, cotton was vital to the American economy. The Nobel Prize-winning economist, Douglass C. North, stated that cotton “was the most important proximate cause of expansion” in the 19th century American economy. read more
Cotton was important to the South because cotton production was integral not only to the Southern economy, but also to overall U.S. economic prosperity in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The cotton economy of the South prolonged slavery as an institution and as a result helped give rise to the American Civil War. read more