A MEMOIR ON THE ORIGIN, CULTIVATION AND USES OF COTTON, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE PRESENT TIME, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE SEA-ISLAND COTTON PLANT, INCLUDING THE IMPROVEMENTS IN ITS CULTIVATION, AND THE PREPARATION OF THE WOOL, &C. IN GEORGIA AND SOUTH-CAROLINA; READ BEFORE THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ST. JOHN'S COLLETON, NOVEMBER 13TH, 1843, AND THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH-CAROLINA, DECEMBER 6TH, 1843, AND BY BOTH SOCIETIES ORDERED TO BE PUBLISHED.
Charleston: Miller & Browne, 1844. [4], 62, [1 errata], [1 blank] pp. Stitched into original printed yellow wrappers and bound into later cloth with gilt-lettered spine title [front board detached but present]. Some foxing, Good+.
Seabrook, President of the South Carolina Agricultural Society, explains that he wrote this "Historical Essay... at the request of Edmund Ruffin." He recounts the history of the development of cotton from its infancy in India and Persia, its importation to the West Indies in the 16th century, then to Virginia in the 1600's, and the rest of the Southern colonies. By the 1780s James Madison said, "There was no reason to doubt that the United States would one day become a great cotton producing country."
The scientific advances in the cultivation of cotton, particularly in the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, are expounded. Seabrook emphasizes the importance of cotton production in the growth and importance of the United States, despite "the suicidal legislation of the Federal authorities." Indeed, "Better and cheaper cotton can be grown in this country than in any other section of the world." An Appendix is laden with tables, charts, and mind-numbing data.
FIRST EDITION. Howes S251. AI 44-5534 [5]. II Turnbull 499. Item #38405
Price: $500.00