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.
