Memphis cotton

This colorized print from about 1900 shows the docks at Memphis, Tennessee, where stevedores load cotton onto black-smoke-belching steamboats. Tennessee’s cotton farming thrived in the richly productive soil of the Mississippi delta. The city of Memphis was a major player in the textiles industry, helping to meet the seemingly insatiable domestic and international demand for the crop. Photo Credit: The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images