A discursive 1890 magazine essay by Edward E. Hale on the history of cotton, opening the New England Magazine's series on the subject. It traces cotton from Herodotus and Indian muslins through early New England use, quilted cotton armor, spinning by hand, Hargreaves's jenny, Eli Whitney's cotton gin, Robert Owen's New Lanark mills, the growth of Southern cotton manufacture, and Samuel Slater's introduction of spinning machinery at Pawtucket. It is a narrative and anecdotal overview rather than a technical study, with no weaving drafts.