United States, Acadian Brown Cotton of Louisiana / Jerry Neil Hale, Cotton Weaving

Jerry Neil Hale of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana USA is the President, CEO and The Southern Planter of Acadian Brown Cotton. Jerry's roots run deep when it comes to the planting and production of cotton as well as its historical and artistic value in the world market. A fourth generation cotton planter, Jerry is now referred to as the “Brown Cotton Man" by local artisans. He prides himself being born and raised a grandson and great-grandson of sharecroppers in the “White Gold Capital of the South", Rayville, Louisiana, a rural community in the northeast region of the state. 

Growing up on a 7,000 acre plantation that was managed by his father, Jerry learned and experienced at a very young age every aspect of a cotton farmer of the period, from planting, hoeing, and hauling the harvested cotton to the gin in a mule drawn wagon. "We raised cattle, pecans, bees, hay and various row crops, but cotton was in our blood, our hearts and always on our mind.” Hale notes. "The plantation was a community of people, friends and neighbors with everything we needed from the general store to the blacksmith shop,” says Hale.

Since 2010, Jerry, along with his wife Mary Alice Nicholson Hale, has found himself nestled in the Bayou Teche region of south central Louisiana where today his roots and his love for Acadian Brown Cotton are firmly planted into the soils bordering the Atchafalaya Basin area. 

Acadian Brown Cotton of Louisiana was featured in Selvedge Magazine Issue 76, Trade Winds.