Mississippi You can't talk about history without referring to the Mississippi River, cotton, or racism. All three played an important role in the formation of Mississippi's history and its continued development. The Mississippi River gave the state its name and plays an important role in the state's transportation system and economy. Cotton was Mississippi's most profitable crop during slavery and beyond and still ranks high on the list of the state's national commodities. Racism has been prevalent in Mississippi since before it became a state. It was at the root of slavery, sharecropping and segregation. The Mississippi River is the nation's longest river and crosses the western border of Mississippi. The Mississippi River played such an important role in the territory that the name was chosen for the new state. The Mississippi River was used to transport people and products in the state's early days. Additionally, many of Mississippi's earliest and most important cities such as Natchez and Vicksburg were built along the Mississippi River. Indeed, the Union siege of Vicksburg and capture of the Mississippi River played a major role in the defeat of the Confederates in the Civil War. More importantly, the Mississippi River created the fertile lands of the Mississippi Delta on which the cotton industry grew after the Civil War. Cotton is not the state flower of Mississippi, but it should be because of what it has meant to the state and its people. . Cotton was the instrument of slavery and sharecropping. Both systems enslaved African Americans and enriched the pockets of white Mississippians. Cotton was a labor-intensive crop before the era of large-scale mechanization. It had taken many hands to pick the cotton and pull the seeds out of its wavy... middle of paper......and kick in the Mississippi today. Mississippi's history is linked to the Mississippi River, cotton and racism. The river has been a blessing and a curse in its past creating fertile but also flood-prone lands and an instrument of Confederate loss of the Civil War. Cotton was long the Mississippi King's agricultural system, but to great detriment to African Americans due to systems of slavery and sharecropping. Racism has run throughout Mississippi's history, seriously harming African Americans as well. Mississippi and its African-American population are reaping negative returns from racist systems of slavery, sharecropping, and segregation; Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation with high rates of poverty, obesity and diabetes, especially in the Delta region, where slavery, sharecropping and racism were so fervently enforced.