Cotton Becomes King

While some Southern states’ agriculture began with tobacco, Mississippi’s cash crop was cotton. The demand for cotton boomed after the invention of the cotton gin in the 1790s. “King Cotton” caused a new demand for enslaved labor for picking. Cotton remained a staple crop in Mississippi long after the end of slavery, as newly freed people were forced to become sharecroppers.

Pictured: A black and white photograph of a street scene in Natchez. Wagons are pulled by horses through a dirt street. Various business signs can be seen in the background.

Credit: MDAH, Photographs Collection