The next destination on our journey took us to Natchez, around 300 miles south of Memphis. Here we visited The Frogmore cotton plantation and gins – the latter not the popular drink of today but the old cotton engine that separated cotton fibres from their seeds.
The tour was predominantly about the old buildings, equipment, and the production and picking of the cotton, rather than a heavy emphasis on the life of the slaves, although there were books available in the shop to delve deeper into this if visitors wanted. Of course, the work from the early 1800s was carried out by slaves and some of their accommodation has been brought back to life with the restoration of 19 structures.
The huts and, below, an example of the interior
We were not told just how many slaves would have been working on this cotton plantation, but owners of the smaller sites – whilst possibly appearing to be wealthy – could not afford to keep many slaves.
We learnt about the yearly cycle of production here. A few acres were set aside for sugarcane for domestic use. Its byproduct, molasses, provided iron, magnesium, calcium, vitamin B6, potassium and carbohydrates. A pint of molasses, together with 4lbs of salt pork, a peck of corn meal (about 2 gallons), salt, soda, and lye soap were typical weekly rations per adult slave.
Corn was also planted – in March – and its harvesting in August was arranged to not interfere with cotton production.
By far the remainder of the site was for cotton production and this involved the beginning of the year spent on necessary repairs of tools, equipment, barns, buildings and fences before preparing the land by adding a milo crop to the soil for nitrogen. The following months involved planting and cultivating this perennial crop before harvesting between September and November.
Cotton was grown in the Deep South of America. Its bushes, when in season, comprise clusters known as bolls. When the bolls ripened, turning from green to white, they were plucked from their prickly pods which could injure the fingers. This was hard, back-breaking, work.
Pickers had to spend all day picking the bolls from the bushes and dropping them into a long sack, which could be up to 9 feet in length. As more bolls were picked the heavier the sack became. This involved men and women. Many might work from sunrise to sunset. Children would use smaller pillowcases for their collection.
The bolls were then transported to a cotton gin where the seeds were removed from the cotton fibres, but only an estimated 5% of the yield provided the desired long fibres. The fibres were then pressed into bales for transportation and sale.
Much cotton was sent to the UK. Part of our tour took us to the historic, listed and rare steam gin on the site, dated 1884. It is housed in the building below.
But operation today is vastly different and Frogmore is at the leading edge with its equipment. A most interesting video brought things right up to date. Latest computerised combine harvesters are capable of producing 900 bales of cotton a day with just 1% waste and byproducts such as shucks can be used for compost, with some of the shorter cotton fibres called ‘fuzz’ being used for insulation within TVs and – meeting a more recent demand – as part of vapes. Additionally, just two people are needed for the operation, but it comes at a price. Such equipment can cost $1 million – a far cry from the resources of yesteryear.
Copyright: Words and photos Sue Barnard 2024