Cotton has been grown for thousands of years in places as far apart as Mexico, China, Egypt, and India. Americans colonists started to grow cotton in the early 1600s. Before 1800 cotton was a great luxury, more expensive than silk, because so many workers were needed to pick it. However, a huge increase in the number of slaves in the American South resulted in much greater cotton production and a fall in the price. This, and the new technology of the industrial revolution, made cotton the cheapest fabric in history. By 1820 cotton was making more money for the Unites States than tobacco, and more money worldwide than sugar.Many Southern farmers and plantation owners believed that slave labor was necessary for them to make money growing cotton
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