:: BerDerp™ ::

Today as my family & I headed through some backroads to my aunt’s house for our annual Christmas event, we found ourselves meandering through some fields. Now southern Alabama is known for several crops, but the region is widely recognized as yielding some of the biggest “bumper crops” of a plant deeply associated with a dark slice of American history — cotton.

Cotton’s presence and different varieties have been found in civilizations ranging from ancient India and Peruvian cultures going back 10 to 12,000 years ago. However, being an American, we automatically have the tendency to naturally draw images of African slave workers toiling from sunrise to sunset to cultivate this plant that literally transformed not only a region but a country.

Today as the sun rode high in the cloudless sky and a light breeze blew, I couldn’t help think of the hours upon hours that thousands of cotton pickers spent hunched over with a bag on their back. Truly an experience no one in this day and age can ever relate to.

This “white gold” was able to make the Southern states hold the 12 richest counties by 1860 exporting around 190$Million to mainly European countries. As you can imagine, this made a lot of people, not just in the South, but in the North also, a LOT of money. Interestingly enough this played a major role in fueling the beginnings of the Civil War. Many think it started over slavery, but it did not. Lincoln didn’t introduce the slavery element into the Civil War until 2 years after it started.

Okay.. history lesson is over.. read here for more info on this.