or upland, variety was certainly
grown in Virginia to a limited extent at least one hundred thirty years
before the Revolution. Some of the early governors of that colony were
especially energetic in their efforts to encourage its cultivation.
Among these were Sir William Berkeley; Francis Morrison, his deputy, and
Sir Edmund Andros. The latter, says one authority, "gave particular
marks of his favor toward the propagation of cotton, which since his
time has been much neglected."

The exports of the Virginia colony during the first thirty years of its
existence were confined almost exclusively to tobacco, but there is
evidence that in the latter half of the seventeenth century cotton was
cultivated and manufactured among the planters for domestic consumption.
Burk states that "after the Restoration (1660) their attention was
strongly attracted to home manufactures as well by the necessities of
their position as by the encouragement of the assembly and the bounty
offered by the King. But the zeal displayed in the outset for these
products gradually cooled, and if we except the manufacture of coarse
cloths and unpainted cotton, nothing remained of the sounding list
prepared with so much labor by the King and recommended by legislation,
premium, and royal bounty."

Among the earliest historical references to cotton in this country is
that contained in _A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina, on
the Coasts of Florida, and More Particularly of a New Plantation Begun
by the English at Cape Feare, on that River, now by them called Georges
River_, published in London in 1666. The author of this tract, whose
name is not given, says: "In the midst of this fertile province, in the
latitude of 34 deg., there is a colony of English seated, who landed there
May 29, 1664." After giving an account of the fertility of the soil and
its natural products, he adds: "But they have brought with them most
sorts of seeds and roots of the Barbados, which thrive in this most
temperate clime. They have indigo, very good tobacco, and cotton-wool."
Robert Home mentions cotton among the products of South Carolina in
1666. In Samuel Wilson's _Account of the Province of Carolina in
America_, addressed to the Earl of Craven, and published in London in
1682, it is stated that "cotton of the Cyprus and Smyrna sort grows
well, and good plenty of the seed is sent thither," and among the
instructions given by the proprietors of South Carolina to Mr