Lunch & Learn

Meet in Rosedale‘s unique English Basement Kitchen for light refreshments and the first program in our new Lunch and Series. This program is titled: “Early America‘s Sleeping Beauty: How Nature and Nurture Turned an Unruly Fiber into King Cotton.” Learn about the most important cash crop of the 19th century and how it influenced the history of America, especially the South. Some specific points covered: 1) The botany of cotton, especially upland cotton 2) Eli Whitney‘s improved cotton gin, and a bit about his unusual life 3) The laborious process of raising cotton from field preparation to harvest 4) The enormous effect of Southern Cotton on the American economy 5) How the labor and profitability of cotton increased slavery beyond its natural life 6) Cotton plantations in Mecklenburg