Picking Cotton in China.

Cargo containers like the Boomerang Box can carry many different types of goods. Some of these goods — such as airplane parts or heavy equipment — are modern and new. You can be sure that no one was shipping airplane parts between Japan and the United States a century ago!

But cargo containers also carry goods that have been traded around the world for hundreds or even thousands of years. In fact, this fall the Boomerang Box has only carried products with long histories: almonds, tea, and now cotton. We’ve already explored the histories of almonds and tea and learned how they have been used in different cultures around the world. Now, the Boomerang Box is carrying a shipment of cotton between Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates and Pusan, Korea.

Cotton has been used for at least as long as almonds and tea. In fact, it may be even older, as scientists have found cotton cloth in Mexico that is at least 7,000 years old. No one knows exactly when people first started using cotton. But it has been used by people around the world for thousands of years and has played a role in the history of many of the world’s countries.

Cotton grows in warm climates. It is grown in the southern United States, China, India, parts of Russia, Brazil, Pakistan, and Turkey. China has historically been the largest grower of cotton, producing 20.2 million bales (or over 10 billion pounds) in 1998. The United States is the second largest grower.

Scientists know that cotton was grown, spun, and woven into cloth in Pakistan over 5,000 years ago. At the same time, people in Egypt were also making and wearing cotton clothes. Arab traders first brought cotton to Europe about 1,200 years ago. And when Columbus traveled to America in 1492, he found cotton growing in the Bahamas. By the year 1500, cotton was known and traded around the world.

Cotton played a very important role in the history of the United States because cotton was directly linked to slavery. The invention of the “cotton gin” in 1793 by a man named Eli Whitney, made it possible for farmers to easily separate cotton fiber from its small seeds. This invention meant that cotton could be grown and sold profitably across the southern half of the United States. Slaves were brought from Africa to these states and were forced to grow and pick the cotton. That cotton was then exported to the northern United States and to Great Britain.

Just as tea and the high taxes on it led to one war in the United States, cotton and its reliance on slave labor led to another war: the Civil War. After the Civil War, slavery in the United States was abolished, but cotton production and trade continued in the United States and around the world. In fact, people around the world today use cotton more than any other fiber.

How was cotton related to the Industrial Revolution? Use the encyclopedia, library, and Internet to research this question and write a one-page essay about what you learn.

What do scientists know about the origins of cotton? Research this question and write a one-page essay about what you learn.

Where is cotton from China traded? Research this question and write a one-page essay about what you learn.

This site provides a number of other US and international cotton organizations: National Cotton Council of America.