1. Chapter 4 The Cotton Kingdom

2. Lesson 1 (page 106)
Large plantations might have covered thousands of acres. Most were located near rivers so that cotton could be transported easily to market.

3. Lesson 1 (page 107)
The majority of Alabama families made their living through agriculture – either raising their own food or producing cotton in large quantities for market.
Yeoman farmers lived on small farms where the goal was to produce food for the family.
Larger farms that grew cotton for market were called plantations.
Belle Mont Plantation
in Alabama

4. Lesson 1 (page 107)
Slavery
Blacks made up almost ½ the population of Alabama in 1860, and most lived on farms and were slaves.
To live in slavery was to be the property of another.
1860

5. Lesson 1 (page 107)
Yeoman farmers tried to be self-sufficient. They raised corn, which was their most important crop.
The farmers planted beans, peas, squash, potatoes, and melons, the same crops the Indians had grown.
Sugar cane was made into syrup. Food was preserved by drying, and meat was salted down and preserved in smokehouses.

6. Lesson 1 (page 108)
The yeoman farmer worked his land with the help of his family. Everyone had a job.
Yeoman farmers usually planted a little cotton, which women and children would pluck from prickly bolls when it was ready.
Women would spin the cotton into thread and weave it into cloth called homespun.

7. Yeoman Farmers Lesson 1 (page 108)
Yeoman farmers might plant enough cotton to sell a bale or two to get money to buy things he could not grow or make.
The problem for most farmers was getting the cotton to market, because the yeoman farmer usually lived where there were no navigable rivers.
Yeoman Farmers

8. Lesson 1 (page 109)
Brogans
Yeoman farmers had to buy coffee, and they needed tools, plows, nails, and medicines. Sometimes the family might buy shoes or bolts of fabric, tin or china plates, or iron skillets.
Shoes made on the farm were called brogans. They were stiff and rough on the feet; this is one reason southerners liked to go barefoot. 
Yeoman farmers were allowed to vote, and there were more yeoman votes than planter votes. Planters tried to influence the yeoman farmers, but they were free and independent so they could vote however they wanted!

9. Lesson 1 (page 110) Planters Planters lived on plantations.
Although they raised some food, most of their land was planted in one crop: cotton.
Most plantations were located near rivers so steamboats could stop at the plantations wharf and pick up the cotton.
The wives of planters had slaves to help them in the kitchen and with the housework.
The planter’s children might do odd jobs, but slaves did most of the work.

10. Lesson 1 (page 111) It’s All About Cotton
As a typical child who lives on an Alabama farm in 1850, your calendar is set. Slave or free, black or white, boy or girl, everyone’s life is ruled by cotton.
Most people work from “can see to can’t see” to pick the cotton.
Wagons carried cotton to the gin.