Cotton Day Toil– Cotton has been cultivated for thousands of years, with evidence suggesting its use in the Indus Valley Civilization as early as 5000 BCE. In the United States, before 1865 growing cotton in the south was largely produced through the labor of enslaved African Americans. Southern cotton generated significant wealth and capital for the Antebellum South, enriching both the southern landowners and the newly installed textile industries of the northeastern United States and northwestern Europe.
Historically, Black Belt economy was based on cotton plantations coupled with some tobacco plantation areas along the Virginia–North Carolina border. The valuable land was largely controlled by rich whites and worked by primarily black slaves, who in many counties constituted a majority of the population. Cotton remained a supreme crop in the southern economy after slavery ended in 1865. The typical plan after the Civil War and Emancipation of the slaves who had provided free labor on vast estates in the American south during the Antebellum period was, for planters to divide the old plantations into many smaller farms that were then assigned to tenant farmers.
Across the south, Share-Cropping evolved, in which landless farmers worked land owned by others in return for a share of the profits because landowners needed a great deal of labor at harvest time to pick their cotton. There were many compensation plans at that time but, there seldom was much cash left over for Share-Croppers because the landlord supplied for their meager needs during the year and then at harvest took most, if not all, the cash crop. Then, the annual cycle starts up again, often with a large turnover of Share-Croppers.
This is a capture of a very hot day somewhere in Appalachia during a cotton harvest. This artwork shows how hard and laborious picking cotton really was for very meager compensation. The row houses along the beaten path coupled with the big house up on the hill clearly demonstrates that the living conditions of Share-Croppers and land owners were not much different than that of their enslaved ancestors. The "beauty in detail" is the endurance of the Share-Croppers and their will to deal with such deplorable conditions.
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