CFS may have thought that Mobile and its Bay were 'unimportant,' but as the only port in Alabama, it was extremely important to the cotton industry. By the 1840s, Mobile was second only to New Orleans. It was noted for the development of its port facilities, with fireproof brick warehouses. It was a port of call for vessels carrying cotton to mills in the North and in England.
In 1860, the population was 30,000, including 1195 free Negros, and some 11,000 slaves, for a total of about 42,000 (1860 census data, quoted in Wikipedia). It is currently ranked as the no. 10 port in the U. S.

Some of the verses used in the chantey versions or cotton-screwing songs can be found in other songs, especially of Blacks. Old versions seem to be lacking. The 'hoosier' verse appeared in Bone, "Capstan Bars," 1931. In form, it resembles "Rolling King," remarked on by Joanna Colcord, in "Songs of American Sailormen."

The chantey seems to have developed from the songs of the Black workmen, free and slave, that the sailors heard while cotton was being screwed or moved from warehouse to shipboard. In "Black Susie," the port is New Orleans (English origin).

A recording was made by J. S. Scott, 1929, 2 stanzas, "I'm goin' away to leave you."
Percy Grainger recorded Royston Clifford singing "Roll the Cotton Down" in 1908, London (a copy at the American Folklife Center, Traditional Music and Spoken Word Catalog, Library of Congress).