Blog Archives

King Cotton

11/22/2022

Cotton field in Williamsburg County, South Carolina

There it was waiting to be picked. A whole field of King cotton as white as snow as we drove through Williamsburg County on South Carolina Highway 341 somewhere between Hemingway and Andrews in Georgetown County enroute to Charleston.

My British companion had never seen a cotton field and was more excited about it than I who immediately envisioned all kinds of things about King Cotton’s past when probably all my black ancestors were probably slave pickers in this South Carolina region that became filthy rich off of cotton.

Ironically one of the richest individuals during the age of cotton was an African American, William Ellison Jr., (April 1790 – December 5, 1861). Ellison was a cotton gin maker and blacksmith who, after being born into slavery, achieved considerable success as a slaveowner before the American Civil War. By the 1860 census, he owned up to 68 black slaves, making him the largest of the 171 black slaveholders in South Carolina.

Ellison, by the way, is my biological father's name. So perhaps, we are related.

Yet, it was wonderful seeing cotton up close, but was happy I never had to pick it wearing a straw hat in the hot sun. I took a hand full of it in my hand to feel its softness. Within in seconds we were not alone. Another couple from Australia pulled off the highway to join our experience, and we couldn't get enough of cotton.