348 A BRIEF MEMOIR 



cotton, although it cannot be its parent plant, 

 for all attempts to naturalize it in Georgia (which 

 were many and repeated) have failed. — It gave 

 blossoms, but it was cut off by the frost in the 

 fruit, nor would it ratoon, or grow from the 

 root the next year — in which too, it resembles 

 the green seed cotton of our country. — This is 

 all I am able to say, and perhaps all that is 

 necessary to be said, of the short staple cotton. 



The Sea Island cotton was introduced directly 

 from the Bahama Islands into Georgia. The 

 revolutionary war that closed in 1783 had been 

 a war, not less of opinion, and of feeling, than 

 of interest, and had torn asunder many of the 

 relations of life, whether of blood or of friend- 

 ship. — England offered to the unhappy settlers 

 of this country, who had followed her standard, 

 a home, but in two of her provinces ; to the 

 provincials of the north, she offered Nova 

 Scotia — to the provincials of the south, the 

 Bahama Islands— many of the former inha- 

 bitants of the Carolinas and Georgia, passed 

 over from Florida to the Bahamas with their 

 slaves. — But what could they cultivate ? The 

 rocky and arid soil of those Islands could not 

 grow sugar-cane j coffee would grow but pro- 

 duced no fruit. There was one plant that would 

 grow, and that bore abundantly ; it was cotton. 



