EVOLUTION OF THE COTTON SYSTEM 51 



cotton agent. He supplied the necessities for the slaves 

 and the comforts and conveniences for the home in job- 

 bers' lots. He handled the planter's money and thus con- 

 centrated it in the larger cities. If in some instances he 

 built up a system of rebates on weighing, storing, and 

 drayage, no one blamed him particularly. He was a busy 

 and hard-working man but cotton was the only agri- 

 cultural commodity that could have stood the delays and 

 exposure at export ports without serious deterioration. 

 If the factors sometimes retired rich men, the hazards of 

 their business were just as likely to wipe out their for- 

 tunes over one or two bad seasons. The factors retarded 

 the growth of fair-sized cities in the inland, because they 

 kept out small merchants and country banks. They de- 

 veloped a high standard of business honor, occupied a 

 high social position, and if often angered at seeing their 

 loans for cotton production spent at northern watering 

 places or on European tours, they remained on intimate 

 terms with the planter, directing and advising his under- 

 takings. 



The cotton system developed a rationale surprisingly 

 fitted for its self-maintenance. With brilliant, incisive 

 strokes Dodd 29 has analyzed the social philosophy by 

 which the planter aristocracy rationalized their system. 

 It developed the familiar doctrine of inherent inferiority. 

 It taught the degradation of manual labor, the necessity 

 for "mudsills of civilization," and an aristocratic organ- 

 ization of society. "It is the order of nature," wrote 

 President Dew of William and Mary College, "that the 

 being of superior faculties and knowledge, and therefore 

 of superior power, should control and dispose of those 



29 The Cotton Kingdom, pp. 53, 64-65. 



