So I never understood the importance of the cotton gin until I grew some cotton for giggles.

Y’all ever tried to get those seeds out?! There’s 4-8 per boll and they are enmeshed. Just cleaning a couple of puffs is a tough chore. And waste as little as possible. Now do 40 acres. The bales around here are about the size of a short tractor trailer box.

Also, try picking cotton some time. Puts a whole new spin on slavery. By harvest time those leaves turn into pointy, hardened razor blades. I barely reached in and one slide up the side of my finger about 1/2". Took 2-weeks to heal since I apparently got a fat inoculation of bacteria.

Now do it fast, bent over, from pre-dawn to just past dusk. And get whipped if you don’t hustle. Slave’s hands had to be lumps of unfeeling callous.

Oh, and the part school didn’t teach about the cotton gin; It made cotton vastly more profitable. Guess where I’m going with this.

And to lighten the mood, have some racist ass field trip.