The History of Cotton-Part 2

There is a sad part of the history of cotton that cannot be ignored. During a 72 year period, the market need for cotton fueled the inhumane trade of slaves. Human beings were killed, maimed, tortured and denied their rights in order to ensure that cotton demands were met. 

A quote from a cotton picking slave that is heart-wrenching and that reminds us the extents of human cruelty is that of Mary Reynolds, "It was work hard, git beatins and half fed ... . The times I hated most was pickin' cotton when the frost was on the bolls. My hands git sore and crack open and bleed." Excerpt from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938.

Cotton in all it's glory is not exempt of human pain. We hold close the memory of all who suffered, and hope that this is a lesson that history will truly teach all of us, market demand for a product is never reason to cause so much suffering.

A History of Cotton- Part 1

Cotton was first cultivated in the Old World 7,000 years ago (5th–4th millennia BC), by the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization, which covered a huge swath of the northwestern part of the South Asia, comprising today parts of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. The Indus cotton industry was well developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the modern industrialization of India.

In Peru, cultivation of the indigenous cotton species Gossypium barbadense was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures, such as the Norte Chico, Moche and Nazca. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets and traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and wearing clothing made of it.

During the late medieval period, cotton became known as an imported fiber in northern Europe, without any knowledge of how it was derived, other than that it was a plant; noting its similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. John Mandeville, writing in 1350, stated as fact the now-preposterous belief: "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungry." This aspect is retained in the name for cotton in many European languages, such as German Baumwolle, which translates as "tree wool" (Baum means "tree"; Wolle means "wool"). By the end of the 16th century, cotton was cultivated throughout the warmer regions in Asia and the Americas.

Keep it here for part two :)


Source: Wikipedia