The new America would become the leading producer of…

…cotton by 1820, but in the late 1700’s, while it was being grown on southern plantations, it was still experimental there.  There were few processing plants, so the making the cotton into fabric in the Colonies was costly.  Most 1770’s Colonial homemade clothing was therefore made of wool, flax, or linen which could be grown locally.

(Sketch:  Cotton plantation on the Mississippi River, approx. 1870’s)