Cotton is King

The sole purpose of slaves was to work. Children as young as 10 years were put into the plantation fields, but would have had duties before that age.

Throughout the Americas Slave owners assumed that Africans were lazy and used this to justify themselves.

They argued that the only way that Africans and their descendants could work was through white discipline. The myth of the lazy black person is thought by many historians to originate from slavery.

This photograph comes from a stereoscope card published by a New York company in 1895. It is titled ‘Cotton is King Plantation Scene, Georgia, U.S.A.’ and depicts black cotton pickers – men, women and in the foreground a young girl – working in a cotton field. In the background, a white overseer wearing a bowler hat sits on horseback.

He holds a baton in his hands.

The American Civil War 1861-1865 led to the freedom of slaves in the United States.

However, this picture was published well after the Civil War had ended and shows that many remained working in occupations and conditions that were little different to those of the slavery period.