Cotton has long been an important and successful part of the economy and history of Arkansas. This is an overview of the cotton industry from the early days of plantations, slaves, immigrant workers to today's productive source of...

Perhaps one of the largest ethinc/cultural group to inhabit Arkansas are the African Americans. Follow their first arrival as slaves working the plantations through all the years toward emancipation, and into present times. Highly...

A comprehensive look at the economy of the South and the changes brought by the cotton gin. Read through five pages that discuss the economy, the tradition of the plantation, and the sectionalism that arises in this time period.

Although Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts, it was in Georgia that he invented the cotton gin in 1793.

Get an overview of slavery in the South, but also see physical evidence in photographs and historical narratives from slaves of the time.

Following Eli Whitney's invention in 1793 of the cotton gin -- a machine that separated raw cotton from seeds and other waste -- the cotton market boomed. Planters in the South bought land from small farmers who frequently moved farther...