But much of the cotton used for sails and other New England textiles was grown in the Deep South, and was loaded by Alabamans onto ships in Mobile and other Gulf ports for transport to the northern factories.

It was the stevedore songs of the Gulf ports --African-American in origin -- that were carried to sea by black sailors in the 1820s and ’30s, and furnished the repertoire of chanteys (shipboard worksongs) sung by whalemen.