Depictions of Slavery in Confederate and Southern States Currency
Original Acrylic on Canvas Paintings by


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Cotton is King

New industries emerged from the slave trade and the slaves’ production, including shipping and transportation, chemicals and textiles, banking, insurance and newspaper publishing.

Within agriculture, the cotton crop was king. By the 1830s the United States was the number one cotton exporter in the world. Currency from the deep South tells an extensive story of enslaved Africans and the crop that bonded them, from planting to picking to loading to shipping.

The image titled "Slave Carrying Cotton" was used on 21 different currencies. Notice how the features of the Slave Carrying Cotton, although female, emphasize the strength necessary to do the work of a man. Men, women and children were all valued property for profit.

 

 

The Franklin G. Burroughs
Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum
3100 South Ocean Boulevard
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

 

 

"Female Slave Hauling Cotton"
 



 

 

State of Alabama  $10.00

To view additional bank notes where this vignette of "Slave Carrying Cotton" was used, click on any note below.


State of Arkansas


State of Georgia


State of South Carolina


State of Alabama


State of Georgia


State of Tennessee


State of Alabama


State of Georgia


State of Virginia


State of Alabama


State of Georgia


State of Virginia


State of Alabama


State of Georgia


State of Virginia


State of Florida


State of Georgia


State of Virginia


State of Florida


State of Georgia


State of Florida


State of Georgia


State of Florida


State of Louisiana 


State of Florida


State of Louisiana

The Color of Money book (clothbound edition) includes a free CD-ROM
with images of hundreds of additional currencies that show depictions of slavery