Sea Island Co. - Cotton History - Gorgeous 1860 dated South Carolina, Georgia, & Florida Stock Certificate - Great History!

Stock printed by Major & Knapp Eng., N.Y. Impressive eagle vignette in top center and cotton picker vignettes of blacks. 25 cents Washington revenue stamp! Rare!!! Tremendous history!!!

Sea Island cotton is a historically significant variety of cotton that was actively cultivated and marketed from 1790 to 1920. It was grown on the islands off the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and dominated the European market with little competition until the U.S. Civil War disrupted production. The exact origins of Sea Island cotton have been debated, but its development involved creating cultivars capable of thriving in the unique environment of the sea islands and producing a distinctive, high-quality product. Success in this endeavor required both producers and consumers to recognize "sea island" as a valuable and distinct market category.

One major challenge in developing a long-fiber cotton suitable for the sea islands was that the original cotton brought to the area from the West Indies had short fibers and required a long growing season. Traditional hybridization or selection methods were ineffective because frost would kill the plants before they could produce seeds, making it difficult to develop a unique variety that could flourish in the sea islands.

There are a few possible explanations for the development of G. barbadense in the sea islands. One theory suggests that changes occurred accidentally in a region with a long growing season and were then introduced to the sea islands. In the 1960s and 1970s, S. G. Stephens conducted an experiment in which he hybridized a G. barbadense with short coarse fibers and a long growing season with a wild form of G. hirsutum that had the same short fiber and long growing season, but the fibers were fine.

The resulting plant produced fine fibers, as expected, but it also had long fibers and a short growing season, which was surprising. Stephens demonstrated that this plant could be easily back-hybridized to retain these desirable characteristics, yet was almost entirely G. barbadense. He argued that a similar event could have happened accidentally in the 18th century, resulting in the long, fine fiber G. barbadense of today. However, this explanation alone cannot account for the distinctive product of the sea islands.

Another theory proposes that unusual weather in 1785-1786 played a role in the development of a productive G. barbadense in the sea islands. Historical records indicate that planters in Georgia were attempting to introduce G. barbadense, but the plants would die from frost before they could produce seed or fiber. The mild winter of 1785-1786 allowed a few plants to succeed in producing seed. The next generation of plants was able to produce seed and fiber before the winter.

Kinsey Burden is credited with developing the high-quality cotton associated with the Sea Islands during the early 1800s. He achieved this through seed selection on Burden's Island and Johns Island in South Carolina. The rest of the southeastern United States developed its own market class called "upland".

By 1803, the Charleston SC market recognized class distinctions of sea island, South Carolina upland, West Indian, and Mississippi. Sea Island cotton, cultivated on the Sea Islands along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, commanded the highest price due to its long staple and silky texture. Despite attempts to grow it on the uplands of Georgia, the quality was inferior and too expensive to process. The invention of the cotton gin at the end of the 18th century revolutionized cotton production, making processing of short-staple cotton profitable. This led to short-staple cotton becoming the main commodity crop of the developing Deep South, and it represents about 95% of U.S. cotton production in the early 21st century.

Francis Levett, an Englishman, was among the earliest planters of Sea Island cotton in North America. Other cotton planters came from Barbados. When the American Revolution broke out, Levett left his Georgia plantation and went to the Bahamas. Although he tried to introduce cotton production there, he failed in the face of the dominance of sugar cane as a commodity crop. Sea Island planters had the option to buy new seed to plant each year or to use seed saved from the previous year. Named cultivars emerged when particular planters became known for selecting the best seed to replant. Examples include "Seabrook," named after plantation proprietor William Seabrook, and "Bleak Hall," named after the plantation managed by John Townsend.

An incident in the early 20th century highlights the importance of seed selection. The best seed selectors ceased selling seed, even to their neighbors, in order to prevent planters in the West Indies from benefiting from their work. This led to a decline in quality across the Sea Island region. Sea Island never fully recovered from the disruptions caused by the U.S. Civil War.

In the early 20th century, the boll weevil caused tremendous damage in the traditional cotton-growing regions of the United States. Sea Island cultivars were particularly susceptible to this pest. Additionally, the wet conditions on the islands moderated soil temperatures, further favoring the insect. Production of Sea Island cotton on a commercial scale came to an end in 1920.

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