Changes in the South Carolina Sea Island Cotton Industry

Southeastern Geographer Vol. 25, No. 2. November 1985, pp. 77-104 CHANGES IN THE SOUTH CAROLINA SEA ISLAND COTTON INDUSTRY Charles F. Kovacik and Robert E. Mason Agriculture has been a principal component in the development of the regional character and landscape of the South and its various subregions . Even though geographers have made considerable progress over the past forty years in assessing the evolution and significance of southern agriculture, some subregions and their specialized crops have been neglected. One such crop is Sea Island cotton which was grown within a limited area in the Low Country of South Carolina. While the Low Country is difficult to describe and even more troublesome to delimit, it is distinctive among southern landscapes. This intriguing landscape is a result of a blending of its peculiar physical geography and the actions of humans who have interacted with it through time. Much of this region's identity stems from the plantation economy which dominated during the colonial and antebellum periods. Rice and indigo production provided the foundation of the plantation economy during the colonial period. Commercial rice production focused on inland swamps and later tidal culture was practiced along the lower reaches ofmany large rivers that emptied into the Atlantic. Indigo cultivation was more widespread throughout the Low Country. It was produced successfully on the Sea Islands, often was grown on highland portions of rice plantations, and some was cultivated in the interior. Tidal rice cultivation became more widespread and rice was the most important low country plantation crop during the antebellum period, but indigo lost its economic viability after the Revolution. On the Sea Islands, it was replaced by Sea Island cotton. Rice and indigo production have been studied by geographers, but the geographic and temporal characteristics of Sea Island cotton have been overlooked. (I) Sea Island cotton, a long-staple black seed cotton, differed from the short-staple green seed cotton which was cultivated widely throughout the Inner Coastal Plain and Piedmont of the southern states. Several types of black seed cotton were grown in the Low Country and each Dr. Kovacik is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC 29208. Mr. Mason teaches at Warren County High School, Front Royal, VA 22630. 78 SOUTHEASTERN LtEOGRAPHER ANTEBELLUM SEA ISLAND COTTON REGION OF SOUTH CAROLINA ? * ?? ^ snfflpfc r éjM^-olSound ? o ? ' Helena Sound G * o a o a a SALT MARSH ISLAND COTTON o a o CJ O £í Û Cj ____¦ o o o o o o o o 00000 o O SEA ISLAND eoo 000 COTTON ° ° ß ß o o o , ..000 o o on low-lying 0 000000 land 00000 000000000000 00000000000 0000000000 0000000000 00000000000 000000000000 0000000000 000000 ***** * * * * *o ù * * * + * *^+ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ******* * * WOODLAND* * ****** ***** * * * SEA ISLAND ' e.COTTON ISLAND COTTON on" reclaimed marsh ISLAND COTTON SLAVE QUARTERS SALT MARSH Fig. 7. A hypothetical Sea Island cotton plantation in the 1840s. plantations, most improved acreage per unit, greatest total production, highest yield per unit, and the highest average value per acre. Plantations averaged 747 total acres and 387 acres of improved land. Twentythree percent were larger than 1,000 acres, fifty-two percent included 500 acres or more, and only five percent were smaller than 99 acres. Vol. XXV, No. 2 91 (38) At the close of the antebellum period, average prices for Sea Island cotton were the highest since 1818, more Sea Island cotton had been exported than ever before, and planters anticipated prosperity. (39) The prosperity envisioned by Sea Island planters, however, never materialized . DEMISE OF THE INDUSTRY. The long and gradual demise of the Sea Island cotton industry began with the outbreak of the Civil War. On the morning of November 7, 1861, only seven months after the fall of Fort Sumter, the islands of St. Helena Parish fell easily to a Union invading force. (40) The area was controlled throughout the remainder of the war and served as the base for the Union blockade of Charleston and Savannah. Not only was this area important strategically, but it also attracted northern missionaries and abolitionists who came to help the thousands of liberated slaves adjust to freedom. Many abolitionist and Federal programs, some later attempted during Reconstruction, were tested on these islands. Slaves...