"In some parts of the world cotton is still grown and handled in a relatively unmechanized fashion. In Ethiopia, for example, cotton still supports a cottage industry."
The men who make it are craftsmen: the millwright, the watchmaker, the canal builder, the blacksmith.What makes the Industrial Revolution so peculiarly English is that it is rooted in the countryside.
It is only about two hundred years old, and, far from shrinking in its influence, is steadily extending its area into agriculture as well as handicrafts.
The skilled freedmen turned to agriculture rather than to handicrafts; white men of a business or mechanical bent found an opportunity to serve the needs of their communities.