| For more than a century, unmechanized, labor-intensive cotton cultivation dominated the economy of the southern United States and defined the patterns of daily life for many of the region's residents. Anglo immigrants to East Texas transplanted the single-crop system into their new homeland where it flourished despite natural obstacles, geopolitical upheaval, and technological advancements. In the midst of almost constant change, many East Texas fanners came to regard "King Cotton" as an invariable fixture, but during the mid-20th century, when World War II accelerated the urbanization and industrialization of the American South, cotton cultivation shifted to regions more amenable to mechanization. East Texas farmers transitioned into the production of beef cattle, and, at the same time, agriculture relinquished its long-held dominance over the broader regional economy.;This study utilizes a combination of oral history interviews and written sources to examine the transition from cotton cultivation to cattle ranching in eight Central East Texas counties. Cherokee, Gregg, Harrison, Nacogdoches, Panola, Rusk, Shelby, and Smith counties constitute a manageable unit in which to study a shift in agricultural activity that exerted a profound impact on most of East Texas and other portions of the cotton south where the mechanization of row-crop farming proved impractical. |
