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Primary Source Sets
Cotton Gin and the Expansion of Slavery
A photograph of African American women and children in a cotton field, 1860s.

A photograph of African American women and children in a cotton field, 1860s.

In this carte-de-visite photograph, very young children stand alongside adults in a cotton field. Because the photograph is from the 1860s, it is unclear whether it was captured before or after emancipation. Workers in this photograph could be enslaved or sharecroppers, both of whom picked cotton in fields on large plantations.

Citation Information
“Carte-de-visite of women and children in a cotton field,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/89f4abb49a39e2040e928aecc46315af.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of National Museum of African American History and Culture via Smithsonian Institution.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 12 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Cotton Gin and the Expansion of Slavery

Previous ItemNext Item
A photograph of a cotton plant in bloom.
A reproduction of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin model, patented in 1794.
A contract between Eli Whitney and the State of Tennessee for use of the cotton gin, 1807.
A petition by Eli Whitney to the US Congress requesting renewal of his cotton gin patent, 1812.
An excerpt from an 1898 book about cotton that details the invention of the saw gin and the ginning and baling processes.
An 1868 advertisement from the Albany Cotton Gin Manufacturing Company for the Star Cotton Gin and Condenser.
A map of US cotton production in 1880 with charts showing figures for the import and export of cotton from 1821 to 1880.
A map of the agricultural regions of the United States, showing changes in cotton production between 1839 and 1924.
A map showing the distribution of the population of enslaved people in the United States, 1861.
A broadside advertising an auction of forty-four enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, 1859-1860.
An illustration of enslaved people laboring on a cotton plantation, 1859.
A photograph of African American women and children in a cotton field, 1860s.
A stereo card depicting African American women and children picking cotton in a field.
A stereo card of an African American worker beside a cotton gin.
A Harper’s Weekly illustration of enslaved people operating an early cotton gin, 1869.

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