But much of the cotton for sails and other textiles was grown in the American South, and was loaded onto ships in Biloxi, Gulfport, and other Mississippi towns for transport to the northern factories.

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