Cotton - A Legacy of Survival

Wild cotton has been grown, harvested, spun and woven into fabric since prehistoric times. This plant has survived thousands of years living in the dense tropical regions of Africa, India, in the Americas and in Australia. Archaeological evidence shows that one variety of cotton was cultivated by people of the Upper Nile (now Sudan) around 12,000 years ago; another type of wild cotton was raised in Coastal Peru 10,000 years ago; while yet another species grew and was woven into beautiful textiles at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus River Valley of West Pakistan (about 5,000 years ago).

The oldest cotton fragments though were found in Mexico where the cloth and fiber found is believed to date back 5,000 years. The indigenous species of cotton found there was 'Gossypium hirsutum' which is still one of the most readily planted species of cotton in the world today. In Peru, where traces of cotton plants and cotton fabric were also found, a cotton species called 'Gossypium barbadense' was once the economic strength of the coastal colonies as Norte Chico, Nazca and Moche. In these colonies, cotton was primarily grown upriver, harvested and turned into clothing, twine and fishing nets. These items were traded in exchange for other goods and services in the region making these colonies very independent, self-reliant and prosperous.

New York Bedding

Alexander the Great is credited for bringing cotton from India to Europe around 300 BC. Crusaders, in the 11th - 13th centuries, returned from their crusades (in India) with cotton fabric that was so beautiful and delicate that those who saw it, wanted to buy more. Cotton however was rare and expensive making it only available to the wealthy class. Up to this point, people wore clothing made from sheep's wool or linens made from the flax plant.

During the medieval period, cotton became known as the imported fabric but little was known about the plant itself or the steps involved in the spinning of cotton threads into fabric. India became a world-class producer of cotton textiles that were highly sought after. Those who knew the art of growing cotton in India, harvesting the crop, spinning the threads, weaving the cotton and finally dying the fabric, became masters at their craft and were in high demand. By the late 18th and 19th century, India's production gradually declined. This decline was largely due to the East India Company's (the chief manufacturer of Indian textiles), decentralization from India moving the plant's location to England. By shifting the manufacture of cotton to England, with India supplying all the raw materials, British people were kept employed and secondly, England stood to reap higher profits from the export of the finished product.

When Christopher Columbus landed in America in 1492, one of the many gifts he received after landing, included 'balls of cotton thread,' from the Arawaks - the inhabitants of the island of San Salvador. Not only was wild cotton growing in San Salvador, it was also growing in Florida even though, at the time, it was not seen as a viable productive product. Later, several attempts were made to bring seed cotton to the American colonies however, these attempts failed as tobacco was the chosen crop and the higher income earner. Even in 1702 - 1708, when the tobacco economy was facing a depression, plantation owners were encouraged to switch from tobacco to cotton however few colonists took this advice. They reasoned that cotton crops were too labor intensive and therefore would be too expensive to operate. Instead, cotton was grown in Barbados (1627 - 1644) and remained there until sugar cane was introduced in the 1630s.

Eventually, cotton seeds did make it to the Americas where small crops of cotton flourished from Georgia to New Jersey. These crops were for household consumption only. Where larger quantities of cotton were needed, British laws demanded that cotton be imported directly from Great Britain. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, India and China provided most of the world's cotton supplies supplemented after that (in the 1740s) by South American colonies in Surinam (French) and Guyana (British and Dutch settlements). Demands and restrictions such as this lead to the American Revolution ousting the British control over America.

Once the American Revolution War ended, Americans once again took control over their domestic cotton growth and cotton product production. By the end of the war, US production grew enough so that by 1784, cotton was being imported in huge amounts to Liverpool, England. Just prior to the American Revolution, many of the government officials had fled to the Bahamas to the island of Exuma, where they sought refuge for their families and themselves. Here they developed plantations of cotton and with the warm climate, the cotton flourished. West African slaves were brought onto the island to work the fields however, by 1802, the Bahamian soil became so depleted of nutrients and so insect-infested that cotton could no longer be planted there. These same officials, who once fled the United States to avoid the war, now had no choice but to return to America and when they did, they brought with them cotton seeds and their black African slaves.

By the 1960s American cotton growers had survived the American Revolution, the American Civil War, slavery in America and the freedom of slaves; ruination of the topsoil by years of planting cotton as their only crop; the boll weevil infestation; the Depression of the 1920s; a slump in the demand for cotton in the 1930s; industrialization and a greater focus on moving away from the land forcing workers into factories and cities. By 1960, the cotton industry was challenged by the competition of synthetic fabrics that were being manufactured at a cheaper and faster rate than cotton plantations could produce. In addition, synthetic fabrics were becoming extremely popular. By 1977, only about one third of all fibers used in the textile industry came from cotton. By the end of the 1970s cotton once more became popular in part because people wanted a softer fabric and in part because by blending cotton with synthetic fabrics, the overall price became very affordable. Not surprisingly, by 1990 about 50 percent of all textiles in the industry were made from cotton.

Today more than ever, cotton is the fabric of choice. The U.S. textile industry consumes approximately 7.7 million bales of cotton a year with 47 percent of it being converted to the apparel industry, one-third going into home fashions and furnishings and the remainder going directly to industrial products.

As the younger generation moves into the next decade, a new interest in cotton is surfacing. Once more, cotton is their first choice when it comes to clothing, home décor and all the cotton by-products that we use daily. This movement is not just happening in America, it is happening globally as well. The same cotton that was found growing in warm climate regions of the world has survived the test of wars, culture, fashions and trends. By all accounts, the demand for cotton and cotton by-products is still on an upward swing and according to this plant's survival statistics, upward is the only way it can go.

Cotton - A Legacy of Survival