About the Program
Gene Dattel presents a social and economic history of the role of cotton in the United States. The greatest export crop of the country for 130 years, its cultivation fed the textile industry and allowed the U.S. to broker independent trade with Europe. However, the production of cotton was also marked by slave labor and the author recounts that the prevalence of slavery was linked to where cotton was often grown. Gene Dattel discusses his book at the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi.