It wasn't. It was important to the plantation owners. The slaves, if their "master" happened to own a cotton plantation and they were told to pick cotton, they picked it or got a beating.
The slaves were brought here unwillingly, bought and sold like cattle. They did what they were told to do to avoid punishment or death.
the major crop prior to the civil war was cotton
The cotton gin
southern colonies
Pecans.
The invention of the cotton gin actually revived a dying slavery demand.
Cotton.
the major crop prior to the civil war was cotton
The Southerners farmed COTTON, the Civil War.
cotton
The greatest resource was cotton. During the civil war, the South traded cotton for guns and other supplies. The South also withheld cotton shipments to Britain to convince them to help them fight in the Civil War. This was called the Cotton Diplomacy.
New Orleans was the world's largest cotton market before the Civil War.
Cottonocracy refers to the wealthy class of Southern cotton plantation owners who held significant political, economic, and social power in the antebellum South. This elite group amassed their wealth through the production and trade of cotton, which was the dominant crop in the region. The cottonocracy played a key role in shaping the economy and culture of the South prior to the Civil War.
"Cotton is King!"
During the Civil War, there WAS no machinery to pick cotton- it was picked by hand. The machine that was used to separate the cotton fiber from the seeds was the Cotton Gin (as in engine).
It played both a waiting and balancing game, wanting the South's cotton, but not wanting to enter into the conflict.
The cotton gin
After the Civil War in Arkansas, it was a poor rural state based on cotton.