During the first two decades of the twentieth century, demand for raw cotton in Europe, Asia, and America outstripped production as African Americans migrated away from Southern cotton fields. Consequently, industrialists in Europe turned to Africa for new sources of cotton.

This volume documents the efforts by British financiers and colonial officials, along with some African-American allies, to bring the American model of cotton production to colonial Africa. In a narrative featuring a host of characters -- including British entrepreneurs, African kings, and African-American scientists -- author Jonathan Robins weaves together events in Africa, Britain, and the AmericanSouth. Robins chronicles the origins, failings, and eventual evolution of Britain's colonial cotton project, revealing the global forces and actors that moved and transformed the international cotton industry.

JonathanE. Robins is assistant professor of global history at Michigan Technological University.

Jonathan E. Robins

Introduction
The Cotton Crisis: Lancashire, the American South, and the Turn to "Empire Cotton"
"The Black Man's Crop": The British Cotton Growing Association and Africa
"The Scientific Redemption of Africa": Coercion and Regulation in Colonial Agriculture
"King Cotton's Impoverished Retinue": Making Cotton a "White Man's Crop" in the American South
Cotton, Development, and the "Imperial Burden"
Notes
Bibliography
Index