Why Was Alabama Called the Cotton State?
Alabama was one of many cotton-producing states in the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was nicknamed “the cotton state” because of its central location in the Cotton Belt of the Dixie South. Cotton dominated Alabama’s economy and drove its history and the structure of society. Early Native Americans grew cotton, and Spanish and English colonists raised cotton in Florida and Virginia. Farmers and botanists experimented with different varieties, sometimes crossbreeding strains of cotton to produce hardier breeds. Throughout the 1700s, cotton was a cottage industry: colonists grew small amounts of cotton near their homes and spun small quantities for their own use.
