Cotton is King?

Question: Cotton is King!?

What did it mean to say "Cotton is King," and why did the Cotton Kingdom speed the expansion of the plantation system into the south west!? Why did the Cotton Kingdom make it even more difficult for plantation owners to consider freeing their slaves!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

The American South had one and only one cash crop, and crop of immense value that anyone could grow and make a profit on, and that was cotton!. Everyone in the South and everything in the South revolved around cotton!. It was immensely profitable and therefore it was worth the investment in slaves and land!. In 1860 the city with the highest number of millionaires ($100 million in today's dollars) in the USA was New York, the largest city with a million inhabitants!. Second was Natchez, Mississippi, a city of only about ten thousand people!. It was wealthy because of cotton!.
Slave owners could not free their slaves, or would not free their slaves because slavery, due to cotton, was so immensely profitable!. To free the slaves would be to give away their money, their land and their wealth and social standing!.
Did you know free-blacks also held slaves!? Check out the story of William Johnson, the "Barber of Natchez" !.!.!. a free black who owned slaves!. He was not the only one either!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Cotton runs our economyWww@QuestionHome@Com