United
States would one day become a great cotton-producing country." This year
Sea Island cotton-seed was introduced into Georgia, the seed being sent
from the Bahama Islands to Governor Tatnall, William Spaulding, Richard
Leake, and Alexander Pisset, of that State. The cotton adapted itself to
the climate, and every successive year from 1787 saw long-staple cotton
extending itself along the shores of South Carolina and Georgia.

According to Thomas Spaulding, the first planter who attempted cotton
culture on a large scale was Richard Leake, of Savannah, but the editor
of _Niles Register_ (1824) says that Nichol Turnbull, a native of
Smyrna, was the first planter who cultivated cotton upon a scale for
exportation. His residence was at Deptford Hall, three miles from
Savannah, where he died in 1824.

In a letter dated Savannah, December 11, 1788, to Colonel Thomas
Proctor, of Philadelphia, Leake says: "I have been this year an
adventurer--and the first that has attempted it on a large scale--in
introducing a new staple for the planting interests--the article of
cotton--samples of which I beg leave now to send you and request you
will lay them before the Philadelphia Society for Encouraging
Manufactures, that the quality may be inspected. Several here, as well
as in North Carolina, have followed me and tried the experiment, and it
is likely to answer our most sanguine expectations. I shall raise about
five thousand pounds in the seed from eight acres of land, and next year
I intend to plant about fifty to one hundred acres if suitable
encouragement is given. The principal difficulty that arises to us is
the cleansing it from the seed, which I am told they do with great
dexterity and ease in Philadelphia with gins or machines made for the
purpose. I am told they make those that will clean thirty to forty
pounds clean cotton in a day and upon very simple construction."

The first attempt in South Carolina to produce Sea Island cotton was
made in 1788 by Mrs. Kinsey Burden at Burden's Island. As early as 1779
the short staple was produced by her husband, whose negroes were clothed
in homespun cotton cloth. Mrs. Burden's efforts failed. The plants did
not mature, and this was attributed to the seed, which was of the
Bourbon variety. The first successful variety appears to have been grown
by William Elliot on Hilton Head, near Beaufort, in 1790, with five and
one-half bushels of seed, which he bought in Charleston and for w