233 Cotton Growing in the South

233.Cotton Growing in the South

Cotton had been grown in the South for many years . It had been made on the plantations into a rough cloth . Very little had been sent away . The reason for this was that it took a very long time to separate the cotton fiber from the seed . One slave working for a whole day could hardly clean more than a pound of cotton . Still as time went on more cotton was grown . In 1784 a few bags of cotton were sent to England . The Englishmen promptly seized it because they did not be - lieve that so much cotton could be grown in America . In 1791 nearly two hundred thousand pounds of cotton were exported from the South . Then came Whitney ＇ s great invention , which entirely changed the whole history of the country .