Cotton

The noble plant of Mississippi's legacy.

- Margaret Gratz

The history of Mississippi, noble and ignoble, joyful and woebegone, is intertwined with cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, a plant of the Mallow or Hibiscus family. It is hard to fathom how the state’s economy was once almost totally dependent on this plant. Cotton built great plantations and created wealth and a cotton aristocracy, but it was also the cash crop for small farmers and sharecroppers.

As we all learned in history class, prior to the War Between the States, cotton was the country’s primary export with the majority of the cotton going to Great Britain. The Southern cotton-growing states provided two-thirds of the world’s cotton. With the invention of the cotton gin and spinning and weaving machines, large mills were built in New England. This textile boom created a domestic market for cotton.

Growing cotton was labor intensive. Under the broiling Mississippi sun, cotton had to be planted, chopped, and picked, and those who had to go to the fields were well aware that they lived in the “land of cotton.” The toil and hard work associated with cotton inspired the blues, and the fascinating characters who were part of the cotton culture influenced Mississippi writers.

And as Southerners are prone to do, the word cotton was used descriptively. If invited to a fancy ball, one is in “tall cotton,” but if the invitation never arrived in the mail, you might be sad or “in low cotton.” Cotton can be used as a verb, as in you might not “cotton” to going to a fancy ball. And cotton can be used as an adjective, as in get your “cotton-picking” hands off my fancy ball gown!